The environment ranks number 10 on a list of the most important concerns troubling Americans, according to this year's Gallup Poll timed to coincide with Earth Day, April 22.
Telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,005 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted March 8-11, found that the availability and affordability of health care is the issue of greatest concern to those polled.
Although this is an environmentally related issue, as many pollutants in air, water and food affect the health of individuals and public health in general, the Gallup organization did not make this connection.
Crime and violence ranked as the second most worrisome issue, followed in order by: drug use, the possibility of terrorist attack in the United States, the economy, illegal immigration, unemployment, hunger and homelessness, the availability and affordability of energy, and then the quality of the environment.
A little over one-third (35 percent) of those polled worry a great deal about the quality of the environment, the Gallup pollsters found, while 62 percent worry about the environment either a great deal or a fair amount. This puts the environment on par with energy, hunger and homelessness, and unemployment.
By a 57 percent to 43 percent margin, more Americans rate current environmental conditions as "only fair" or "poor" than say they are "excellent" or "good." This assessment is slightly more negative than those of two and three years ago.
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