WASHINGTON, Apr 22, 2008 -- UPI

As the world celebrates Earth Day Tuesday, a Gallup poll indicates Americans and Japanese citizens are the "greenest" of all in the top five polluting nations.

Records from the Energy Information Administration show China, India, Japan, Russia and the United States together account for 54 percent of the total global carbon dioxide emissions.

Of those five nations, Gallup says more than 85 percent of all Americans and Japanese participate in voluntary recycling programs, while less than 30 percent of citizens do the same in the other three countries.

Citizens in all of the top polluting nations except Russia said they try to conserve water, with at least 60 percent of all citizens in the other nations saying they try to use less water in household activities.

Environmental awareness, however, is low with just more than 20 percent of residents in the top five polluters saying they know a "great deal" about global warming.

The polling data gives the results have a sampling error of 3 percentage points. At least 1,000 adults were questioned in each of the five nations.

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