Earth Day Poll: Many Think Environment Will Get Worse

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Polling

CBS News Poll analysis by Fred Backus of the CBS News Polling Unit.

Roughly one in two Americans expects the environment to be in worse shape for the next generation, a new CBS News poll finds. Just 16 percent expect it to improve.

The poll comes on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, and reflects Americans' pessimism about the direction of the environment as Congress debates comprehensive energy legislation designed in part to reduce carbon emissions.

The findings actually reflect an improvement in perceptions from three years ago, when 57 percent of those surveyed expected the environment to get worse for the next generation. At that time, just 11 percent predicted it would improve.

The most pessimistic Americans are those under 45: Only 15 percent in this group expect improvement, while 54 percent predict the environment will get worse.

Seventeen percent of Americans over 45 say that the environment will get better, while 44 percent say it will get worse.

Men are slightly more optimistic than women, as are wealthier Americans.

Read the Complete Poll
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This poll was conducted among a random sample of 858 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone March 29-April 1, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by 1renegade April 25, 2010 12:23 AM EDT: Lakota... the DJIA was over 14,000 during the Bush administration. Go back and re write your comment with the facts, not a Liberal bias as you do with all your uneducated facts and rumors.; Reply to this comment

by 1renegade April 25, 2010 12:20 AM EDT

Next the liberals are going to be crying about global cooling since the eruption. I guess they will try to blame "W" for that as well.

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by hakori April 25, 2010 8:52 AM EDT: 1renegade, are you even aware of what's happening in the Artic? Do you have any clue? You climate change deniers, who unwittingly work for the biggest offenders of greenhouse emissons--yet the liberals are the ones with an unscrupulous agenda, may scoff and scron the climate models and predictions as well as climate scientists themselves, but you can't deny emperical data can you? You probaly can... I have no idea how you people can claim the Artic ice is increasing when the summertime melt last year was on par with 2006-07. It's alarming! The permafrost is melting which releases methane, and it's being released from the sea floor. Methane is 23 times more efficent at trapping heat in the atmospehere than CO2. In fact, the warming in the Artic may now be more due to methane than CO2. The summertime ice coverage continues to retreat at an alarming rate and exposes the dark water which absorbs even more heat. We're entering a dangerous feedback loop with climate change and you people continue to burry you heads. The Artic is the canary in the coal mine. It's only going to get worse. The question is how quickly will it get worse. If we know anything, we know that the models are insufficient; things are happening much faster than predicted. We can blame 'W' for alot, including denial of the climate change crisis....it is a crisis wether you accept it or not. If we make this planet unfit for civilization as we know it, what do we do? Where do we go? You people on the right put all your climate change eggs in the basket of the one percent of scientists who say what you want to hear. These are the scientists with an agenda: the agenda of the biggest polluters to protect their "right" to pollute. You scorn liberals for wanting to protect our ONLY home, while you merrily go on your way claming all is well. When you finally realize your house is on fire, pray it's not too late for the fire to be put out.


by msharemail April 22, 2010 6:47 PM EDT: I don't see how a poll this general is useful in anyway. How about doing something like this: Ask for specific information. Here's an example: http://organicconnectmag.com/; Reply to this comment

by wfw3536 April 22, 2010 2:42 PM EDT

It is sad that our president is allowing oil drilling on the shores of many areas of our country. It will cause great harm to the environment and he doesn't seem to care.

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by erasmus111 April 22, 2010 3:07 PM EDT: So it's okay for other countries to harm their environment for YOU?

And then there is the COST thing. Isn't it way cheaper to drill your own oil?

At least you have a President that actually ACKNOWLEDGES that there is a problem with the environment. Bush spent years hiding it. Bush hired a lawyer to censor what the media put out about global warming. He didn't want the people to know how bad it was.


by ibsteve2u April 22, 2010 6:06 PM EDT: Methinks it wouldn't have been a stupid idea to prohibit oil drilling in and around America until we really needed it - for the day when cars powered by crude oil become obsolete because we need the crude for plastics.

Rude of me, to think of using other people's oil up first - but this American is in it to win it. The thought of all the world's peoples playing nice-nice together in the interests of mutual survival is beyond my ability to believe, given the presence of so very many righties in this country alone who jump at any and all opportunities to enrich themselves - even when doing so requires the sacrifice of American lives.

lollll....it is difficult for to believe that America has the monopoly on evilly-greedy people; if not for wealth, then for power.


by erasmus111 April 22, 2010 2:28 PM EDT: "Men are slightly more optimistic than women, as are wealthier Americans."

Hmmmm, I wonder why that is? Maybe because men live in more denial. That and they don't want to have to give up their SUVs and BBQ!

And the rich, well, they just don't want to give up anything.; Reply to this comment

by Empire-George- April 22, 2010 2:10 PM EDT

by MPHgrad April 22, 2010 12:43 PM EDT

It would be inane to focus heavily on natural causes when they are largely out of our control.
_____________

However, isn't identifying the cause of the slight increase in temperature (+0.6*c over 20 years) the main point ? if you are to deal with it effectively, correctly realizing the causes is important...(all of them, not only man-made).

Do you think regulating Human emissions is "in our control" realistically and practically ? with so many nations (China, Russia, etc.) with no real desire to curb emissions, how is man-made emissions "within your control".....is forcing control over everyone's emissions, the desire of the left ?

I think it's actually funny or ironic, how humans can drive priuses, change to flourescent light bulbs, go to alternative energy, wind, solar, and in one eruption, Mother nature dumps everything back into the environment....everything saved was just negated....so it shows, you have no control, man-made or nature-made....it's to "feel good" that you are or making believe you are, "doing something" even though you aren't.....we are "saving the planet", how dare you get in the way of captain planet

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by ge556 April 22, 2010 2:46 PM EDT: Empire-George said "I think it's actually funny or ironic, how humans can drive priuses, change to flourescent light bulbs, go to alternative energy, wind, solar, and in one eruption, Mother nature dumps everything back into the environment....everything saved was just negated...."
===
Nonsense. Nothing was negated.
Even if the volcano had dumped tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere (which I don't think it did), that would be normal, natural activity. We need to keep from adding so much to the natural greenhouse gasses that we change the climate.


by patocc123 April 22, 2010 2:54 PM EDT: This eruption alone will cause sulphuric aerosols to be present and thus lower the temperature for the next decade.

So how does that relate to c02 emissions. It doesn't and it is well known knowledge in the scientific community and will become a talking point in the future. Its also why scientist will not put co2 emmisions as the major cause of global warming.

by tsigili April 22, 2010 1:19 PM EDT

Not only worse, but we are rapidly approaching the "point of no return" to save the planet, with far too little being done, and the biggest problem we face, being ignored.

Personally, I don't think we will react in time to save the planet, at all.

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by erasmus111 April 22, 2010 2:36 PM EDT: Personally, I think you are right.

"...but we are rapidly approaching the "point of no return""

David Suzuki wrote in one of his books that we had almost reached the point of no return, and that was over 10 years ago. I'm thinking we have past it.

If we ALL tried really hard, we might be able to slow it down, but sadly, there are just too many selfish people in this world.


by mikelpond April 22, 2010 12:54 PM EDT: well, duh! world population is increasing, countries are just beginning to come to grips with the problem. this just shows people are finally paying attention.; Reply to this comment

by lakota2012 April 22, 2010 12:26 PM EDT

You religious DENIALISTS continue to take the cake when it comes to parroting the usual rush conservitard talk radio garbage and the FAUX NoNooz network propaganda, since the republiCON party has waged a WAR on science for political reasons for decades!

www.waronscience.com

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by IndepTex20 April 22, 2010 1:16 PM EDT: Get a grib Lakota........you lefties are so emotional. From my perspective, environmental engineering consulting, air quality is better and ground water is better than it has been in a very long time even considering the human population explosion. I will qualify that by saying that statement is true in America, not sure about other industrialized countries and forget about third world countries..........which catagory do you think China fall into!?

by MPHgrad April 22, 2010 12:13 PM EDT

Of course, nothing is wrong with how we are living. That smokey substance that main stream media call smog is actually a composition of low lying clouds that will soon produce rainbows to leprechaun land.

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