You can put environmental issues right there along with crime, drugs, energy, race relations and poverty, says the Gallup Organization. That is, Americans worry a lot less about the issue than they did prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

It's not the kind of news that helps environmental reporters pitch their editors for more time and effort in covering the beat.

About 62 percent of Americans worry "a great deal or fair amount" about environmental quality, Gallup says, down from 77 percent who worried that much about three years ago. About 11 of the 15 percent falloff came in the March 2001–March 2002 period, which included the 9/11 attacks.

President Bush's own "environmental image" among Americans "has suffered somewhat, particularly over the past two years," Gallup says. "For the first time, slightly more Americans (46 percent) say the president is doing a 'poor job' than a 'good job' (41 percent) on environmental protection.

"This represents a 10 percentage-point decline in Bush's positive rating and an 8-point rise in his negative rating on environmental protection since March 2001, shortly after he took office," Gallup reported (see http://www.gallup.com/content/print.aspx?ci=11179).

Bush's falloff on environmental protection among the public pales when compared with the falloffs on energy and economic issues, Gallup reported, explaining the differences in part by pointing to "a sluggish economy, rising gas prices, and various energy crises." Despite some falloff in support for administration environmental policies, the Gallup results say most Americans (about 53 percent) "believe that such policies are about the same as in prior administrations."

Few Americans indicated they are aware of recent criticisms by the Union of Concerned Scientists concerning alleged politicization of science by the administration. Nonetheless, "when asked whom they tend to believe in the matter, a majority (59 percent) of Americans say they believe the scientists, while 32 percent say they believe the Bush administration. The Gallup survey did not make clear that respondents know or understand that the Union of Concerned Scientists is an activist organization.

The Gallup survey was based on phone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,008 adults 18 and older. The interviews were conducted between March 8 and 11, and Gallup says it has a 95 percent confidence level that the maximum error attributable to wording or other factors is plus or minus 3 percentage points.