How the climate movement can build political power 🌎💪🏽 with Nathaniel Stinnett

The environmental movement has a voter turnout problem: 11.2 million environmental voters did not vote in the 2024 election. Over 11 MILLION! That’s over half of the people who say climate/environment is their #1 voting issue. On the one hand: Are you kidding me?! WTF 😖 — especially when elections are often decided by mere thousands of votes. On the other hand: So much room for improvement! So, what can we do about this? Enter Environmental Voter Project. Our guest for this episode is Nathaniel Stinnett, founding executive director of EVP. I’ve been a fan and supporter of EVP since day one. It’s a nonpartisan nonprofit whose entire reason for being is getting non-voting environmentalist to become super voters. ✅ Just imagine the world we could have if those 11+ million Americans actually voted and politicians lived in fear of the enviro voting block. Swoon. So dreamy. In Nathaniel’s words: "What the climate movement needs now more than anything is political power, period. We have a whole bunch of policy solutions. We have a whole bunch of technology. What we are missing is political power." But for me, his real zinger of the episode was: "The fossil fuel industry has convinced us the climate crisis is a suicide rather than a homicide. And we’re all just still blaming ourselves." Hot damn. Well, blame where it’s due. But also, what if we get this right...? Nathaniel’s Hot Climate Take 🥵🌎 — Not only should Democrats be talking about climate change, they should embrace it as a wedge issue. Mentioned in this episode: * EVP Impact Report: 11.2 MILLION environmentalists did not vote in the 2024 election * YouGov Weekly Tracking Poll of issues Americans consider most important: 7.1% of US registered voters rank “climate change and environment” as their top priority. (On the upswing!) * Jess Craven’s Substack newsletter: Chop Wood Carry Water * UCSB 2035 Initiative: Polling: Politicians Shouldn’t Hide From Climate Credits: This episode was produced by Remoy Philip and me (Ayana), with support from Jenisha Shrestha. Graphic design by Holly Griffin of Design Hungry, and social media support from Feeling Seen Studio. _____ PHONE BANK ☎️🌎 with Environmental Voter Project Join me every Wednesday until Election Day, from 12 - 1:30p ET. We’re gonna phone bank with EVP — on repeat — to help make sure Earth lovers show up to vote. If 12p on Wednesdays doesn’t work for you, I will miss you, but sign up for EVPs many other shifts. Bring your crew. All the cool kids are doing it. Register here. Get full access to WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? at ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/subscribe