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With six months until the 2022 election, most young voters are frustrated with the lack of progress and pessimistic about the future. Voters under 35 say things are not going well with respect to virtually every issue facing their generations, from the economy and health care costs to abortion rights and climate change. Just 22% believe things are excellent or good with regard to climate change. Further, 80% support “Reducing carbon emissions and addressing the impact of climate change.” With few exceptions, they don’t trust either political party in the country to handle their concerns. 90% say things in the country are on the wrong track. Overwhelming majorities of young people say that things are not going well with respect to each issue area tested in this survey, with the exception of the right to vote (55% positive, 45% negative) and protecting LGBTQ rights (split 49% positive, 51% negative). They are the most negative about money in politics (5% positive) and healthcare costs (7% positive). There are some notable differences in assessments of problems by gender and race/ethnicity. These young voters overwhelmingly say the trust the Democratic Party more than Republican Party with many issues. This poll asked more questions about assessments of problems and policies.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including a new report from Pew on Americans’ attitudes toward different energy sources, new battleground polling on a potential reconciliation package in Congress, and new polling about carbon removal.

This is a revolutionary dual-tool for frontline organizers who wish to achieve greater effectiveness by facing potential failures head-on. Forget the old concept of movement “wins” or “losses,” this podcast and guide-booklet are an invitation to rethink our relationship with the definition of failure when working to create social change. Learn from the L’eau Est La Vie resistance camp leadership and their epic, yet “unsuccessful,” campaign to stop the Bayou Bridge pipeline. Determine powerful leverage points within your struggle. Listen to the veteran frontline water and land protectors, get inspired, and then prepare to follow the additional step-by-step printed guide-booklet. Learn how to design your own plan for artful and effective failing, and also find out the one way that you will most certainly fail when working to stop social and environmental injustices.

People don’t buy as many electric vehicles (EVs) because they misperceive the mileage driving range of the EV car batteries. However, correcting these misperceptions in people can reduce their concern about vehicle range and increased their stated willingness to pay for EVs (specifically those with battery ranges between 60 and 240 miles, relative to a 50-mile-range baseline model). When this study provided people with this accurate EV driving range information, it increased people’s willingness to pay for EVs more than did providing information about how accessible vehicle charging stations are. The authors argue that this research can be turned into political messaging about EVs.

This interactive session covered how researchers and advocates (the two biggest constituents in the Lab community!) can help each other evaluate the effectiveness of their programs, test out new approaches to win campaigns, and generate more knowledge for the rest of the movement to learn from. Our panel included:

Kate Mannle (Rare) and Adam Seth Levine (Johns Hopkins University, research4impact) on the process of building mutual understanding and a healthy, equitable working relationship across sectors
Rodrick Leary (Audubon) and Heather O’Connor (Louisiana State University-Shreveport, Indiana University) on how to connect across sectors and share knowledge
Ernesto Cruz (Neighbor to Neighbor) and Justin Rolfe-Redding (Climate Advocacy Lab) on moving from shared interests to tangible questions and a functional research plan