Climate change drops down America's worry list

In 2007, 33 percent of Americans named climate change as their most pressing environmental concern. Five years later, that percentage has slid to just 18 percent -- even as record heat waves and monster storms lash the country. In a new poll undertaken by the Washington Post and Stanford University, 29 percent of respondents said water and air pollution is the world's most pressing environmental issue. A lack of political focus is blamed for shifting attitudes to the issue, though Americans still believe climate change is a worry: Three-quarters of us believe the Earth is warming, and more than half believe the government should do "a great deal" or "quite a bit" about it.