In honor of Earth Day, Gallup has just released polling showing how American’s opinions of the environmental movement have changed in the previous ten years.
At first glance, the results aren’t pretty:
But as has been the case in several other recent polls, the change is due almost entirely to a sharp shift among Republicans. Gallup explains:
These results indicate that the decline in positive views of the environmental movement among Americans over the past decade is disproportionately the result of substantial declines among Republicans, which dwarf those among Democrats.
Using data provided by Gallup, I created this chart showing how Republican views of the environmental movement have changed in the past 10 years:
As you can see, nearly 50% of Republicans now think the environmental movement has done more harm than good, up from 28% just 10 years. And on the flipside, while 70% of Republicans thought the environmental movement did more good than harm in 2000, just 49% feel that way now.
Happy Earth Day, Republicans!
