Editor's note: This is the seventh in a series of stories examining the top issues of concern for The Eagle-Tribune's 154 voters participating in the presidential campaign coverage project.

Shari Litch Gray thinks she has a good understanding of the data out there regarding the environment, given that she's a biology professor at Chester College. She foresees changes in habitats, temperatures and the oceans in the next 20 years, if things keep going the way they are.

"As a human race, we have to decide, is it OK for that to happen?" she said.

Gray and 73 other local voters say it's not OK, and they are looking for a presidential candidate who agrees. The Eagle-Tribune polled more than 150 voters in 16 area towns to see what their top 10 concerns were in choosing the next president. Forty-eight percent of them gave the environment a place in those rankings.

Their knowledge, concerns and potential solutions within the spectrum of the environment may vary slightly, but these voters all agree a candidate's proposed environmental and conservation policies could be a determining factor when casting their vote.

Gray, 46, wants to see a candidate who is willing to participate in a global solution, she said. She's looking for someone to sign treaties and support international organizations that are working to come up with answers. Other countries are already engaged in discussions about the environment, and the United States has to get in on those, Gray said.

The United States signed the Kyoto Protocol, but never ratified it. She said ratifying it now isn't necessarily what she would like to see, but she wants a president who is going to become | and stay | involved with frameworks similar to the protocol.

"We aren't going to fix it tomorrow," the Hampstead resident said. "But if we don't start, we never will."

Hashim Azam has learned all about renewable resources at Salem High School. The environment is not one, but he said President Bush doesn't act as if he knows that. The current administration only works on pollution and other problems when something pressing comes up, according to Azam.

"Right now, it's a need-based item," he said. "Not that we aren't making enough effort, but we are just doing it as we need to. I think that we should go ahead and do it all the time."

There are lots of alternative energy machines and products being invented already, the 18-year-old said. He would like a president to require companies to increase production of them. He doesn't want a president to mandate that people use the products, because the country is based on freedom, but he thinks people will automatically buy them.

"Who wouldn't want a car that was better on gas, faster and better for the environment?" he said. "At the same price."

As Azam prepares to vote in his first presidential primary, that's just one of the policies he thinks Democratic candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama are likely to enact.

But for Mark Stevens, 46, a lawyer from Salem, Mike Huckabee sounds more promising. Huckabee has the record of a conservationist, according to Stevens. And since the candidate is a sportsman, Stevens is confident that Huckabee is cognizant of what's going on.

"He's conscious of the environment, so we won't waste more resources," he said.

Stevens said he wants a plan that will cut down on pollution right away, and also will explore and work toward transitioning the country to using alternative energy resources.

Juliana Ball, 49, a librarian from Sandown, ranked the environment sixth with the main concern of finding a president who would control emissions, mainly from cars, she said.

"What drives me crazy, these huge SUVs that use so many gallons of gasoline," she said. "It has to stop somewhere."

With larger vehicles that require more gas, Ball said, she fears how much land will be ruined in the pursuit of more oil. She blames President Bush and former President Bill Clinton for allowing such high oil consumption. Those presidents not only didn't stop consumption levels, they signed off and allowed increases, according to Ball.

"We are just going to self-eliminate ourselves," she said. "Eventually, everyone is going to be fighting for what we have left. It's just a scary thought."

Ball would like to see a candidate subsidize farmers who are having trouble keeping their land. Their plants help the environment and the growth also makes for healthier food, she said.

Replacing farms with development increases the already substantial problem, Ball said.

But not everyone feels as strongly as Ball. Andrew Nesbitt, a warehouse worker from Londonderry, ranked the environment 10th on his list, but now he says he doesn't know why.

"It's not really high when it comes down to the grand scheme of deciding on a president," he said.

Already, Nesbitt, 46, said he believes the administration is doing a good job of enacting clean air standards. And, since the environment is one of the issues all the candidates are creating platforms on, he said he doesn't think one would stick out more than the others as a deal-breaker.

"All the candidates are going after that," he said.

The only environment-related policy that would sway his vote would be for a candidate who was willing to drill along the East and West Coast for oil to help cut the country's international dependence, he said.