WORDS BY JASMINE HARDY
Artwork by Nico Krijno
When you think of a climate voter, a few characteristics may spring to mind: young, progressive, liberal. And well, you’d be right. The base of people who prioritize climate change at the ballot box do identify as all of those things. But as time goes on, this seemingly rigid social identity bubble is steadily expanding. Unlikely groups such as conservatives, baby boomers, and even Evangelical Christians, are now spreading the gospel that climate change impacts everyone, regardless of age, race, religious background, or political affiliation. Let’s face it—in 2024, it’s difficult to deny the existence of climate change, no matter how hard conspiracy theorists may try.
Still, while public consciousness and concern for climate change is widening, it’s not necessarily deepening. Recent polling reveals that most Americans still aren’t viewing climate change as the urgent issue scientists frame it as, with it ranking last among voting concerns for the upcoming election, according to a September survey. Climate change infiltrates every part of our lives—from our health to our finances to our daily interactions with one another. The evidence is clear: this is an issue that impacts everyone and everything. So, what’s holding us back from treating it as such? When is it time for us all to become climate voters?
Edward Maibach, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication, said the disconnect mostly comes down to distance: “[People] understand [climate change] is a problem, but they see it as a distant problem—distant in time, distant in space, distant in species,” he explained. “All of those are misperceptions, but they create a sense of psychological distance between the person and the threat.”
Maibach has been studying public opinion on climate change for 16 years; during that time, he’s noticed four things that consistently come up when asking people about climate change. The first reference is to plants, penguins, and polar bears. Then, he said, it’s science. Next is politics and politicians; and lastly, extreme weather. Only one of those is something people connect to their daily lives, thus causing a deep depersonalization of the issue. This is in line with how many view climate change. A Pew study found that only 23% of people think they will have to make major sacrifices in their own lives due to global warming.
For Trey Somerville, who identifies as a Christian moderate, his top issues for this election are abortion and gun control; therefore, he said he doesn’t consider himself to be a climate voter. “When I think of this election, [climate change] isn’t the first thing to come to mind.”
“Climate will never gain the political urgency that other social and economic issues will have in the U.S. That said, I’ve often felt there’s a way to frame every issue in America as a climate issue.”
Somerville’s sentiments echo those of many other Americans—there are many issues, including abortion and gun control, that supersede climate change in priorities, with the economy and healthcare topping that list. It’s understandable—these kitchen-table issues dominate political conversations and immediately impact people’s livelihoods. After all, how can you worry about polar bears while struggling to afford groceries? But viewing all of these issues as separate, rather than connected, sets off a familiar pattern of placing climate change as an afterthought, ever pushed to the backburner of political progress. In reality, climate plays a central role in every one of these major issues: Severe droughts are destabilizing the global crop market, ultimately driving up food prices; extreme storms are restricting abortion access even further; and gun violence is closely tied to increasingly warmer days.
Leah Aronowsky, a science historian at the Columbia Climate School, said that climate change has to be framed as an intersectional issue in the political arena. “My sense is that climate as a standalone issue is a political dead-end.” she said. “Climate will never gain the political urgency that other social and economic issues will have in the U.S. That said, I’ve often felt there’s a way to frame every issue in America as a climate issue.”
Noor Shaikh, who is voting in the national election for the first time, has been seeing this play out from her home state of Texas.
“Even the most progressive people at my high school would deny [climate change], it just didn’t click. It’s not talked about in Texas at all.”
Shaikh’s number one issue is Gaza, but she has been connecting the dots between war and climate change. “The biggest issue on my ticket is Palestine and with the amount of bombs, it’s only worsening [the climate]. It’s all interconnected,” she says. Still, Shaikh says she wouldn’t classify herself as a climate voter since it doesn’t solely define her vote. In fact, if she had to rank climate change as an issue by itself, she says it would probably fall in the middle.
“It’s hard to grasp the concept as a standalone issue because what is climate change, really?” she asked.
An intersectional-minded reframing would also trickle down to a local level, where being a climate voter could perhaps have the largest impact. This can be seen most dramatically among rural voters in the South. Roishetta Ozane, an environmental justice organizer in Louisiana, said the terms we use to frame the issue make all the difference in these communities, noting that even using the term “climate voter” itself can cause separation.
“It’s all about the terms and how we use them. There’s not a universal definition for environmental justice or climate voter, it depends on who you ask.”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or Democrat, Catholic or Christian. If you go to those polls and vote, you’re a climate voter.”
While canvassing in her community in southwest Louisiana, Ozane decided to create her own list of issues for community members to rank based on priority. She found that when she used the term “climate change”, it ranked eight out of 10 issues. But when she specifically spoke about how shrimpers have had their catches decline in recent years or how the hurricanes are decimating homes and communities—and she linked it to climate change—suddenly, people were more interested. Her general strategy is to explain to voters that their environment starts with their bodies. People care about what they drink, eat, and breathe, but they don’t often associate that with how it impacts the rest of the world and vice versa. Once they connect their local issue to a global one, a light bulb goes off.
“We have to tell them that their environments make up the entire climate, so what’s impacting you is what’s contributing to global warming, to those ice caps melting, to those polar bears and sea turtles becoming extinct,” explained Ozane.
The problem in starting those conversations is that people exist in echo chambers. An April poll showed that 67% of pro-climate voters discuss global warming at least occasionally while just 19% of all other voters do. In addition, 40% of pro-climate voters hear friends and family discuss global warming at least once per month, compared to only 15% of all other voters.
Penetrating those echo chambers could yield tremendous political and climate impacts. For example, Maibach said that Republicans who have climate-concerned people in their social network tend to be much more concerned compared to those who don’t. People care more when they realize the people they trust—whether that’s a friend, a family member, or even a weathercaster—also care; that’s human nature.
“When we start to activate many trusted voices talking from their own perspectives, that’s when the issue will be turned around, and confirm that it’s serious and we’re taking it seriously,” he said.
However the dots end up connecting and whoever draws those lines, it still falls on us to form our own perspectives—to personalize and prioritize the most universal issue of our time. A vote for the climate isn’t just a vote for the Earth; it’s a vote for your community, for your family, for yourself. So, who is a climate voter? Ozane puts it simply: “It doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or Democrat, Catholic or Christian. If you go to those polls and vote, you’re a climate voter.”
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Who’s a Climate Voter, Anyways?
