I was surprised to see the data that I’ve graphed below reported in an ABC News et al. poll (PDF) showing that people are less likely to describe themselves as “environmentalists”. The specific question asked was, “Do you consider yourself an environmentalist or not?”

If we were in one of my environmental policy classes, an obvious question to ask of this data would be, does this trend reflect a failure of the environmental movement? A failure of the public? Something else?