7 Environmental Takeaways From the 2020 Election Season
The Senate may not even settle out until January, when Georgia will hold runoff
elections and we’ll find out which party controls that house of government.
But while we wait
— patiently or otherwise — for those
votes to be tallied, let’s take a moment to step back and look at several
big-picture environmental takeaways from the election season.
1. Climate Change Came Calling
Despite the lack of
real policy debate — let’s face it, this was less an election of ideas and more
a contest of ideologies — climate change played an unexpected and thankful
role. That started most noticeably in the unannounced climate question during
the first presidential debate.
After that several political ads made
climate an issue, and some Democrats stumped on it. We didn’t see any
speeches solely about climate, but Biden and Harris brought it
up strongly several times during the last days of the campaign.
And yes, the very real
risks of climate change played a role in driving people to the polls.
A survey conducted last month found that 58% of Americans were either “very
concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about the threats of climate change. That
included 90% of voters who favored Biden at the time. Biden and Harris spoke to
that, and voters listened. Life lesson: When you talk about and take seriously
issues that affect peoples’ lives, they lend you their ears.
This growing support
for climate action means that if Trump ultimately wins reelection, and then
continues to ignore climate (as he obviously would), there will be prices to
pay on the international stage starting in January and again at the polls in
2022.
2. The Forgotten Crisis
But the extinction
crisis did not get any real play in this election, even from progressive Democrats.
Considering the oversized role of wildlife trafficking in the emergence of the
COVID-19 pandemic, preserving biodiversity will need to become a major policy
initiative moving forward.
Luckily many
environmental organizations made this a key call during the campaign, so we can
expect to see some progress on this if Biden is confirmed as the next
president. (If not, expect more Trump attacks on the Endangered Species Act and
other wildlife policies.)
3. Equality
Racial inequality was
one of the main themes of the election, but the candidates did little to
address income inequality, the greatest driver of political and
social unrest in this country. If we don’t take dramatic action
about that soon, it will give further strength to the Proud Boys, QAnon
conspiracy junkies and their extremist ilk — and that will spill out into
environmental issues like livestock ranching, public lands protection and
environmental justice.
Fortunately the
presidential and vice-presidential debates, and Democratic candidates
themselves, made a big deal out of other issues related to inequality, such as
racism, LGBTQA+ rights and women’s rights. Unfortunately, the fact that
nearly half the country voted to reelect a racist misogynist — and many other
candidates who rode on his coattails — does not bode well for the future. These
are all issues that have deep environmental implications, so we as a
people and as a country need to do a lot better.
4. Suppression
People like to vote.
And record numbers turned out this year, even amidst the pandemic. But who
knows how many more votes would have been counted — and how many races would
have had different outcomes — if not for the 29 Republican techniques for voter
suppression used during this election?
So come on,
Republicans, stop trying to prevent our citizens from doing their democratic
duty. If you can’t play fair, get out of the game. (And while you’re at it,
stop suppressing science related to pandemics and climate change, ’K?)
Everyone else: Watch
your back. The same Republican-appointed, Federalist Society loyalist judges
who have ruled (and may yet rule) on so many of this year’s voting lawsuits
will soon find cases about climate change and other environmental threats on
their dockets.
5. Fossils
The Democratic Party
needs to refine its messaging on oil and gas. It’s got some decent policies — such
as ending subsidies and stopping development on federal land — but that doesn’t
ease the fears of people terrified by a forced transition in their lives and
careers. The evidence is clear that these industries not only harm the planet
and peoples’ health, they’re also failing financially. The faster we transition
those jobs, the less pain we’ll all feel when oil, gas and coal collapse like a
house of cards.
6. Faux News
Speaking more broadly,
the media landscape remains hopelessly bifurcated, and that seeds division
within the country, reaching from politics to basic information such as
COVID-19 safety measures and crises like climate change. That needs to change.
To address this issue, education standards should include teaching media
literacy — and all adults should be encouraged to learn how to spot disinformation and bias. (It’s telling
that Media Literacy Week 2020 was held the week
before the election.)
It’s all a bit bigger
than this, obviously. Most people self-identify as belonging to — or diverging
from — one political party first, then pick the media outlet that supports that
worldview. But the right-wing media notoriously spreads more disinformation
about environmental issues, so finding a way to break that chokehold will go a
long way toward bridging that divide.
7. Money, Money, Money
An obscene amount of
money was collected and spent on this election — a record $14 billion, according to
OpenSecrets, which tracks political spending.
On the one hand, we
saw an amazing increase in small, individual donations. That’s great.
But corporation and
PACs poured cash into candidates’ coffers (either directly or in support of
their campaigns), and it felt like most of that went to fund blatantly
dishonest campaign ads.
And what’s the
ultimate cost of those donations? Will special interests return with their
hands out? We’ll never know for sure, since most of those dollars (on both
sides of the political aisle) are hidden from the public record, although it’s
certainly happened before. That needs to change if we ever hope to transform
this economy and save the planet.
John R. Platt is the editor of The Revelator. An award-winning environmental journalist, his work has appeared in Scientific American, Audubon, Motherboard, and numerous other magazines and publications. His “Extinction Countdown” column has run continuously since 2004 and has covered news and science related to more than 1,000 endangered species. He is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Association of Science Writers. John lives on the outskirts of Portland, Ore., where he finds himself surrounded by animals and cartoonists. http://twitter.com/johnrplatthttp://johnrplatt.comhttps://www.instagram.com/johnrplatt