Thursday, March 18, 2010 1:15 PM
For Most Americans, Economy Trumps Environment
By Christopher Snow Hopkins, NationalJournal.com
Americans are more likely to favor growing the economy over protecting the environment when the two priorities are in conflict, according to the latest Gallup poll. This is the second straight year, and only the second time since Gallup began asking about the trade-off in 1984, that worries over the economy have superseded environmental concerns.
The poll found 53 percent of adults surveyed favored economic growth, while only 38 percent responded that environmental protection was their main concern, continuing a steep decline since 2007 (55 percent). The reversal in priorities in recent years could be at least partially due to the worldwide recession, Gallup said, as well as increased optimism about the environment (41 percent say conditions are improving, up from 25 percent in 2007).
Gallup surveyed 1,014 adults on March 4-7. There is a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
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