Latinos Value Environment Conservation in New Poll! Republican Victory in Trouble?

A new poll showed the strong commitment of Latino voters to environment conservation and addressing climate change.

The poll, which is released by Earthjustice and GreenLatinos and conducted by polling firm Latino Decisions, emphasized Latinos' attention to a variety of energy and environmental issues, as well as immigration reform and economic growth, EathJustice's official site wrote.

"For Latinos, our strong positions on questions pertaining to the importance of stewardship of our natural environment and conservation of resources reflect long-held cultural tenets taught to us not as environmentalism, but based more on common sense, economic necessity, and good citizenry," said Mark Magaña, president and founder of GreenLatinos, as quoted by ThinkProgress.

According to EarthJustice's website, Latinos think that immigration reform is as important as solving environmental issues such as the reduction of smog and air pollution, which 85% of Latinos deemed as highly important.

The poll found that 86% of Latinos support water conservation, while 84% think that the U.S. government should authorize more clean energy sources, such as solar and wind power, the news outlet added. Additionally, 79% of Latinos believe in protecting wildlife, public lands, and endangered species.

Check out the poll's full results here.

"Latinos are very concerned about climate change and more specifically, air and water pollution," Gary Segura, co-founder of Latino Decisions, told ThinkProgress. "They see pollution as directly affecting their families."

Randy Jurado Ertll, California Latino Environmental Advocacy Network's executive director, said that low-income Latinos end up "working in agricultural fields and in polluting industries, like in southeast Los Angeles," Public News Service reported.

Ertll added, "They're the ones who are mostly impacted by the toxics and chemicals, because they're the cheap labor that gets taken advantage of."

The National Hispanic Medical Association said that American Latinos are three times more likely to die from asthma than any other racial groups. Half of the Latinos living in the U.S. reside in regions that regularly violate clean air regulations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that almost a quarter of low-income Hispanic and Puerto Rican children in the U.S. have asthma, in contrast to one in 13 middle-class or wealthy white children.

EarthJustice noted that 59% of Latinos think that passing stronger environmental laws would pave way to economic growth and create new job opportunities. The survey also indicated that 66% of Latinos believe human activities caused global warming and climate change.

This could be bad news for Republican candidates, given how 16 of them are opposed to the scientific consensus of climate change and have rejected the policies that aim to deal with pollution and environment issues, ThinkProgress noted. Those who acknowledge the issue say that climate change isn't a problem or isn't caused by people.