Most Americans Believe Government is Doing Too Little to Protect the Environment

The Pew Research Organization finds that a majority of Americans aren't happy with the Government's oversight of the environment and think they should do more. On specific issues, they found that Americans believe we are "doing too little to protect key aspects of the environment including water (69%) and air quality (64%). And two-thirds of Americans (67%) say the government is doing too little to reduce the effects of climate change."

These finding are not surprising, but Pew also found that there was a substantial jump in concerns about the environment as the Federal Government transitioned from the Obama to the Trump administration and Scott Pruitt took over the EPA.

From Pew: Separate Pew Research Center surveys found a 15-percentage-point decline between 2015 and 2017 in Americans’ overall ratings of how well the federal government is protecting the environment. Views of government performance in this area shifted among both Republicans and Democrats.

Pew's research also determined that there are still substantial differences between liberals and conservatives regarding climate change.

Pew: About eight-in-ten liberal Democrats (83%) say the Earth is getting warmer mostly because of human activity. In contrast, 18% of conservative Republicans say this, a difference of 65 percentage points.

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