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Nearly Half of Americans Cite
'Too Little' Environment Regulation

Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults agree that protecting the environment is important and standards cannot be too high, according to a Harris Interactive poll.

At the same time, nearly half of Americans surveyed say there is too little government regulation and involvement in the area of environmental protection, compared with about 19% who feel there is too much regulation and 32% who say it's just right.

The telephone poll of 1,217 adults indicates concern about too little environmental protection has risen slightly from 39% in 2000, when this poll was last conducted. But the percentage is far below the 63% who said there was too little regulation back in 1991.

Americans view large corporations as one of the biggest culprits in environmental problems: 71% said they are doing less than their share to help reduce environmental problems. But 63% say the general public isn't doing its share.

Only 12% of U.S. adults describe themselves as active environmentalists. While more than half of U.S. adults say they are sympathetic to environmental concerns, nearly a quarter say they are neutral and 4% say they are unsympathetic.

Water pollution is the top concern among poll respondents, followed by air pollution. Other priorities included global warming, ozone depletion, and depletion of forest lands.

See full results of the poll:

* * *

"Do you agree or disagree with this statement: Protecting the environment is so important that requirements and standards cannot be too high, and continuing environmental improvements must be made regardless of cost."

Base: All Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

* * *

"Do you agree or disagree with this statement: Protecting the environment is so important that requirements and standards cannot be too high, and continuing environmental Improvements must be made regardless of cost. And do you strongly or somewhat agree or disagree?"

Base: All Adults

* * *

"Do you think there is too much, too little, or about the right amount of government regulation and involvement in the area of environmental protection?"

Base: All Adults

* * *

"Do you think there is too much, too little, or about the right amount of government regulation and involvement in the area of environmental protection?"

Base: All Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

* * *

"How high of a priority do you feel each of the following problems is, using a scale of 1 to 10, where '1' means the problem is a low priority and '10' means the problem is a high priority."

Base: All Adults

* * *

"For each of the following, please tell me if you feel they've done more than their share, just about right, or less then their share to help reduce environmental problems."

Base: All Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

* * *

"Do you think of yourself as an active environmentalist, sympathetic to environmental concerns, neutral, or unsympathetic to environmental concerns?"

Base: All Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
* Less than 0.5%

Methodology:
Harris Interactive conducted this online survey in the U.S., Aug. 9-16, 2005, among a nationwide cross section of 1,217 adults. Figures for age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, income and region were weighted where necessary to align with population proportions. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online. In theory, with probability samples of this size, one can say with 95% certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of =/- 3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire U.S. adult population had been polled with complete accuracy.

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