Fifty percent of Americans believe that improving the environment should take priority over economic growth, according to a Los Angeles Times poll completed last week. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said protecting plants and animals should trump protection of property rights. Fifty-six percent opposed President Bush’s decision to overturn a rule to reduce arsenic levels in drinking water, and 59 percent disagreed with Bush’s move to withdraw from the Kyoto treaty on climate change. Four of 10 respondents in the poll claimed to be environmentally active in some way.
