Environmental Leader

A new poll shows that people who once put a huge emphasis on the government’s green efforts now have other issues they care about more.The latest Pew Research Center poll shows that the economy and job market have jumped to the top of the priority list for most people. Last January, 75 percent of Americans polled said that the economy should be a top priority, and in a year’s time, that has jumped to 85 percent.On the other hand, however, protecting the environment has fallen from 56 percent a year ago to just 41 percent today. Of the 20 issues raised, the least important issue raised was global warming. Experts say that issues such as the environments are secondary when there is a more immediate problem. For example, Pew Research Center president Andrew Kohut said that they saw a similar drop in secondary issues after September 11, 2001, when terrorism skyrocketed to the number one spot.

Unfortunately, this could cause problems for Obama, who has already been criticized for focusing on the environment when the public considers other issues to be more important. There is a partisan agreement that strengthening the economy should be the government’s top priority, but support for environmental issues as a top priority still divides Democrats (54%) and Republicans (20%).

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