Resource Center

How can climate advocates optimize our work using the latest tools and best practices from across the advocacy and campaigning industry? The Climate Advocacy Lab recently attended the Campaign and Advocacy Tech conferences, where practitioners, consultants, and vendors discussed strategy, trends, and technology. Here are some of our key takeaways. (And keep a lookout for a future Lab alert specifically covering insights and tools for distributed organizing and sustained engagement gleaned from these conferences.)

Based on Spring 2018 polling, this slidedeck summarizes research on how youth audiences (defined here as Millennials and younger) approach electoral politics. 
The authors identify four drivers influencing voting: political understanding, belief in the political system, a sense of civic or personal responsibility to vote, and alignment with the Democratic Party. Conversely, the lack of these drivers (e.g., skepticism of the political system) are among four key barriers to participation identified. The authors also describe four types of mindsets among young eligible voters, one that leads to voting and three that do not. These latter three mindsets may be based on apathy (lack of personal political interest), a revolutionary mentality (distrust of a broken political system), or uncompromising values (refusal to vote for candidates they do not fully support).

In case you missed it last month, protestors took to the streets around the country (and in cities across the world) for the second annual March for Science just days before hundreds of prominent scientists openly rebuked the Trump White House’s dismissal of the scientific evidence of climate change. What’s more, an unprecedented number of scientists are running for public office this November. Today we revisit the perennial topic of scientists as climate messengers as well as the use of science messaging to shift the needle.