Issue: Climate Policy

It’s Earth Day! Of course, Earth Day is a great media and organizing ‘hook’. But how do you find similar focal points throughout the rest of the year? The infrastructure plan Biden unveiled several weeks ago (and which could pass by a September budget deadline) may be a strategic opportunity to focus attention on climate, justice, and energy issues for months and years to come.

Americans support the Green New Deal (GND), even when shown GOP attack lines about the policy package. 60% of Americans support the GND, and just 29% oppose it. This breaks down to 83% support by Democrats, 57% by Independents, and 36% by Republicans. Further, a majority of voters (57%) say they would support if their member of Congress co-sponsored the GND resolution when it is reintroduced in Congress. 51% say they’d be more likely to re-elect their representative if they co-sponsor the GND. Even when presented with a right-wing talking point that the GND would be “a waste of taxpayer money that will increase the national debt”, 52% still think lawmakers should pass the GND. Every major policy plank of the Green New Deal enjoys widespread bipartisan support, including lowering utility costs, reducing pollution, helping family farmers adopt sustainable practices, making communities more resilient to extreme weather, and investing in frontline communities.

This interactive webinar covered the process of how this collaboration between environmental justice and labor forces was facilitated, how they built a shared vision around resilience, a rundown of the report’s key findings, and a guided activity for how to apply the report’s insights to participants’ local communities and organizing work.

Since 2008, the National Surveys on Energy and the Environment (NSEE) have been exploring views of global warming among American adults. In the 24th wave of the survey, NSEE reached five key findings:

American acceptance of global warming is at a record high, with 75% of adults believing there is solid evidence that temperatures have increased over the last four decades;
Americans are more confident in their view that the planet is warming, with 51% indicating they are very confident global warming is happening;
Nearly 6 in 10 adults indicated that there is strong evidence of global warming and that humans are partially responsible;  
Almost half – 47% – of Americans attributed 2020’s record warmth to human induced global warming;
Action on climate change is more varied among respondents: mitigation efforts are the most commonly identified climate policies (39%), and nearly equal portions of respondents prioritized adaptation (16%) and geoengineering (17%).