Eighty percent of voters in Colorado and seven other western states prioritize air, land, water and wildlife issues as key factors in electing leaders, including more than four in 10 who say the environment is very important or their primary factor compared with health care and the economy, a new public opinion poll has found. And global warming increasingly preoccupies voters across the Rocky Mountain region, according to the results of the Colorado College State of the Rockies Project’s annual Conservation in the West poll. While 5% of voters in the five states surveyed in 2011 identified climate change as their most important environmental problem, the poll results — unveiled Thursday — show that 35% in the expanded poll of eight states this year volunteered climate change as their top concern. A 59% majority of voters said climate change requires action, up from 48% a decade ago, the results show. And 69% agreed with the observation that western water supplies are becoming more unpredictable every year — a change linked to warming temperatures. To view the full article visit the Denver Post.
