We’re All in This Together
Get Out the Vote Like Life on Earth Depends on It
(Because It Does!)
By Tom Berry and Peter Dugas
With another national election on the horizon, one often hears statements like: “This will be the most consequential election of our lives.”
This description may be justified in recent elections, but many disengaged or disenchanted voters simply shrug off these types of descriptions as exaggeration or political hyperventilating. For them, it has become just a boy-who-cried-wolf refrain.
After another summer of record-breaking heat, drought, glacial melt and flooding, the global climate crisis is persistently escalating and intensifying. If the need for climate action grows more urgent every year, are we not consistently facing our most consequential election?
To stabilize the climate, it’s critical we build on the success of the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act. This ambitious climate legislation would have been impossible if not for the slim Senate majority achieved through massive Get Out the Vote campaigns in Georgia and other swing states. While we have good reason to celebrate, we are still far from meeting critical climate goals.
For the past few elections, groups like the Environmental Voter Project have worked hard to bring climate-anxious voters to the polls. According to their research, those that claim climate or the environment as a top issue are the LEAST likely to vote!
The Environmental Voter Project has proven effective in swinging close elections by bringing this reluctant voting block to the polls.
As another critical election approaches, there are many opportunities to engage voters. Through envrionmnetalvoter.org you can find canvassing, phone, and text banking opportunities throughout the country. It couldn’t be easier, plus it’s effective and… fun! My daughter still claims partial responsibility for the surprise election of two environmentalist Senators from Georgia after her EVP calls convinced Georgians to try something new and vote.
This is not a time to sit on the sidelines and assume that someone else will take care of the climate. We have both urgency and agency!
Please register to vote. Tell your friends to vote for candidates that support climate action. And volunteer for the Environmental Voter Project in the coming days. With so much at stake and a shrinking timeframe to act, our world and all of humanity cannot wait!
We’re All in this Together is a monthly Climate Justice column provided by the Portland chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.