Climate change puts the economy on the back burner

Vice President Kamala Harris’ appeal to moderate voters included concessions on climate change. Including flip-flops to support fracking after pledging to ban it in 2019. Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump said he wanted clean air and clean water but denied the science of climate change and was threatened claw back unused federal Funding will be available from the Biden administration’s climate bill to accelerate the clean energy transition.

However, the problem is often ignored.

“This is incredibly disheartening,” said Jennifer Rushlow, a professor of environmental law at the Vermont Law and Graduate School, who said she was disappointed that climate change did not play a more prominent role. He is not alone. Climate advocates in the region said they wanted the issue to resonate more strongly but were not surprised that the candidates focused on the economy instead.

Some suggest Harris is avoiding the issue because it could alienate moderate undecided voters. “There is an incredibly stark choice” when it comes to climate change, said Paul Bledsoe, an adjunct professor in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at American University. “Perhaps given Trump’s climate nihilism, voters already believe there is such a deep difference that there is little incentive for either candidate to talk about it.”

Some environmental advocates say they are largely satisfied with Harris’ approach, especially given the state of the environment. Biden administration Track record including incentives to encourage clean energy production under the Inflation Reduction Act. They say they agree that whatever it takes to defeat Trump must be done.

“Politicians don’t talk about climate change because polls don’t do well, not because it doesn’t matter,” said Johanna Neumann, a senior executive at the nonprofit Environment America.

When Pew Research Center voters taking part in the poll When it came to what issues they thought were most important, climate change ranked last, behind the economy, health care, Supreme Court appointments and six other options. Likewise at Globe/Suffolk University Survey of 500 likely Massachusetts votersJust 3.6 percent said climate change was the most important issue driving their vote.

That doesn’t mean voters don’t care. One Survey of voters’ attitudes towards climate change In a survey conducted this spring by Yale University and George Mason University, 62 percent said they preferred candidates who support action against global warming.

However, there are deep partisan divisions: 97 percent of liberal Democrats and 81 percent of moderate Democrats favor candidates who support action to combat climate change, compared with 47 percent of moderate Republicans and only 17 percent of conservative Republicans.

Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, said he found it “mysterious” that climate change did not play a larger role in Harris’ presidential campaign, given these political divisions. This is an issue that the Democratic base cares deeply about, according to polls, so it could motivate them to show up on Election Day.

“These are people you don’t have to convince that climate change is a serious problem. You just have to convince them to come and vote,” Leiserowitz said.

This, Environmental Voter ProjectA Boston-based nonprofit is using data to select millions of voters who may not participate in the election, but who would prioritize climate change if they did.

The group identified 4.8 million potential first-time climate voters in 19 states this election; This means they are registered but have not voted in 2020 or since, and would likely prioritize the environment when voting, according to the analysis. Because they are disproportionately young as a group, climate change has the potential to sway a large new bloc of voters in one direction.

“We never talk about climate change,” said Nathaniel Stinnett, executive director of the Environmental Voter Project. Instead, they’re knocking on doors, making phone calls, sending mailers and more to get climate-conscious voters to show up and vote.

In Massachusetts, the Environmental Voter Project identified 246,361 potential first-time voters. Nearly 12,000 have voted so far. In some swing states the numbers are higher. 33,521 voters voted for the first time on climate change in Georgia, and 20,930 voters cast ballots in North Carolina.

Stinnett emphasized that early voting data does not predict final results, but said he feels positive.

“None of these people were supposed to vote; this data is not only exciting, it’s extraordinary,” he said. “We are living in a time of absurdly close elections where less than 12,000 voters decided on both Georgia and Arizona four years ago. “So it’s incredibly exciting that 33,000 voters in Georgia voted for the first time on climate change.”

The Sunrise Movement, a youth-led group that supports policies that mitigate climate change, also uses global warming to motivate voters, even if they are not the best candidates.

“Climate is on the ballot,” said Kidus Girma, campaign director of the Sunrise Movement. “This topic comes up all the time in our conversations with young people, whether they’re talking about the jobs they want, the temperatures they experience in their communities, or the future they’re looking for.”

Peter Haas, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, said that demographic — young voters — tends to consider climate change an important issue, but that is unlikely to persuade candidates to talk about it.

“There is a question that is constantly asked: Are young voters really coming to vote?” said Haas, who studies environmental politics. “They can think whatever they want, but if they’re unlikely to succeed, candidates won’t spend the time courting them.”

As of Tuesday, Sunrise reported contacting more than 1.9 million young voters in several swing states.

But as groups like Sunrise and the Environmental Voter Project race to get climate voters to the polls, advocates are looking inward and wondering how climate slipped off the radar of high-priority issues.

“The reality is that we need to build more public support for renewable energy and fossil fuels to stay in the ground,” said Environment America’s Neumann. “And until we do that, political leaders will continue to read the tea leaves and go where the people are.”

Sabrina Shankman can be reached at [email protected]. follow him @shankman. Erin Douglas can be reached at [email protected]. follow him @erinmdouglas23.