Poll: Religious believers concerned with environment

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Dec. 7 (UPI) -- A majority of the religious in the United States supports environmental regulation, a poll released Wednesday said.

Three out of four of those surveyed by the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland said they believe they have an obligation to be good stewards of God's creation and that caring for the environment is part of that duty. Two out of three say backing environmental regulations is part of that responsibility.

Four out of 10 said preventing nuclear war is an act of good stewardship.

"This research challenges common political stereotypes that pigeonhole religious Americans as liberal or conservative on environmental and nuclear proliferation issues," said John Steinbruner, a co-author of the study and director of the center. "These findings demonstrate the public's strong moral impulse to address global policy challenges -- an impulse that if applied properly could break the current impasse on these issues."

On one of the more contentious issues, 70 percent of those surveyed do not believe regulating greenhouse damages will hurt the U.S. economy. A majority support making international agreements on the environment, including emissions, and on nuclear weapons.

But only four out of 10, including three out of 10 evangelicals, say there is enough of a scientific consensus for action on climate change.

The poll was conducted online Sept. 9-19 using a sample of 1,496 adults. The margin of error is 3.3 percentage points with larger margins of error for subgroups.