Voters want global warming pollutants cut, state poll says

The majority of Arizona residents believe man-made global warming is a problem, and that government should be doing more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to results of a recent poll released by a state environmental group.

The group, known as Environment Arizona, also released a report Thursday showing that Arizona’s output of carbon dioxide, believed to be the leading cause of recent warming trends, increased by 54 percent between 1990 and 2004.

The Grand Canyon State was second only to Nevada in terms of percentage increase during that same period, according to the report.

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Director Steve Owens said that figure is comparable to the one his agency came up with in 2005 when it did a similar analysis. It found Arizona’s carbon dioxide emissions had increased by 56 percent from 1990 to 2005.

Owens said the good news is that Arizona’s biggest carbon dioxide sources are vehicles and power generation, both of which can be reduced relatively easily with conservation, alternative fuels and new technologies.

“We don’t have a lot of heavy industry in the state,” which is more difficult to clean up, he said.

According to an Environment Arizona poll of 600 registered voters throughout the state, Arizonans are concerned about carbon dioxide and want to see more effort to reduce emissions.

The poll, which has an error margin of plus or minus 8 percentage points, found that 66 percent of state voters want at least some action taken to reduce global warming pollutants. Eighty-seven percent support energy conservation and the use of more clean energy sources such as wind and solar.

Environment Arizona spokesman Eric Magnuson acknowledged Arizona’s increase in carbon dioxide emissions has a lot to do with rapid growth, but he said there’s much more lawmakers and residents could be doing to get those numbers down.

“Arizona could be doing a lot worse, but the problem is we could be doing a lot better,” Magnuson said.

The purpose of pointing out such statistics, he said, is to get residents to urge their political leaders to focus more on pollution reduction and renewable energy measures.

Owens said much is being done to address those issues, including an effort by Gov. Janet Napolitano to set greenhouse gas reduction goals that would bring the state’s emission levels back to 2000 levels by 2020, and to half that amount by 2040.

In general, Owens said, Western states have been leading the charge on greenhouse gas reduction efforts because those states are expected to suffer the most immediate effects of global warming.

“We’re already seeing it,” he said.