Is Voting Important For Climate And The Environment?

We the people have the power to save or destroy our planet with our votes.  Learn about the impact of U.S. politics on the environment and why your vote is important for the environment and climate.

Julie Smith, 9/13/26

This is a summary of Chapter 26, The Roller Coaster, in the book, “2050: What’s it Gonna Be?”.  You can download the full chapter, as well as other chapters.  References are here.

Of one thing we can be sure.  The government is not going to save this planet.  The past 50 years of a completely erroneous roller coaster ride should tell us that.  There’s always something more important to argue about, and the environment falls by the wayside, with only a few exceptions.  Currently our most urgent problem appears to be fascism in our government, and a bunch of spineless pimps who are more concerned about keeping their jobs than about the needs of the people, which in turn are linked at the hip to the needs of the planet.  This is why it’s up to each and every one of us to look in the mirror and figure out what we can do.  Most successes happen from the grassroots up anyway.  We have to insist, we have to advocate and we have to figure out how to live our lives such that we give as little money as possible to the greedy pimps who are controlling our leaders like puppets and running wild over our country and ruining our environment.

The Environment should be the most non-political issue we have.  Why would I say that?  I mean, of course it’s political.  Everything’s political.  Greens lean left and non-greens lean right.  Right?  To me, this makes no sense.  It’s been this way for decades, since we began to recognize that our wonderful life wasn’t so wonderful for the planet.  Or at least, since some us began to recognize that we might have a problem.  That we might have a problem with running out of resources someday, that we might overrun wildlife and drive species to extinction, that we might leave a dry barren rock for future generations to try and scrape out a living.  That we need to change how we do things, sooner rather than later, with urgency, to avoid a complete disaster.  You’d think our leaders could agree on this one issue, since we all share this planet, for good or bad, and each and every one of us, no matter what our core philosophies are that guide how we view our lives and our world.  You’d think we could agree on saving our world.

So, why is that?  Why is it that generally left-leaning types seem to support the environment, with responsible businesses, responsible behavior, etc., while right-leaning types mostly disregard the environment as something not worth their trouble?  Or a hoax?  A conspiracy theory?  And this generalization is not even completely aligned.  I know plenty of right-leaning people who do seem to care, at least to a point.  People who recycle diligently, who have 2 or fewer children, who keep their carbon footprint low.  But the thing that truly fascinates me is that, while the right thinks they are supporting total freedom without government intervention, that is not what is actually happening in a right-wing government.  For one thing, why is it so important to the right to fight so hard against any attempts to stop our uncontrolled population growth?  And doing that by making abortion illegal, for example?  How is it that telling women whether or not to have children is complete freedom from government interference?   When that’s the most personal and private decision a woman can make?  How is a personal decision like that any business whatsoever of the government?

And, population is a great example of how we are losing our freedoms.  Insidiously, one by one.  Without even realizing it.  The right is fighting to minimize government and keep our freedoms, while supporting a government that resists population control.  Aggressively.  By restricting women’s rights to make decisions about their own families and their own bodies.  Does that sound like freedom?  Hmm.  And ever-increasing population growth is restricting our personal freedoms, literally with each additional person we add to this planet and to our own country.  We have less available water, less access to public lands, and we put up with constant construction to accommodate the growing population.  We spew more CO₂e and warm our planet faster while running through what’s left of fossil fuels faster than ever.  We constantly take more land from wildlife, when there’s almost none left.  And, at the bottom of every environmental problem we have is unrestrained population growth.

You can’t talk about an environmental problem without eventually getting to population and social issues.  In fact, many of our social problems are really problems of scarcity, climate and weather, which are in turn driven by population growth.  After all, people get angry when they can’t get enough food and water for their families, much less shelter and other comforts.  Wouldn’t you?  I sure would.  It shouldn’t be a complete shock to think that much of the recent global unrest these days, the terrorism, the genocides, the civil wars, the migrations, involve at their core people fighting over increasingly scarce resources.  So, you’d think it would make all the sense in the world, no matter what side of the aisle you’re on here in the U.S. to always support efforts to control our population.  And you’d think in this state of emergency we’ve created on our planet by allowing our population to get too big, that population would be the ultimate bi-partisan issue.  So why isn’t it?

You’d think that stopping our wildlife destruction would be high on the list too, given that if the intricate natural cycle of life on this planet is destroyed completely, we’ll definitely lose our planet, and we're about 20 years away from that happening.  You’d think that clean air and water for all would be priorities, that stopping pollution of our life-giving air, water and land would be of utmost priority.  And it is, when progressives are in charge, and it drops to the bottom of the list as soon as conservatives are in charge.  And the right is aggressive about it, making sure to tear apart any gains made by the left when they were in charge.  And that is who we’ve become as a country.  Vindictive rights trashing any successes from the left. 

When conservatives claim that removing restrictions to freedom by abolishing environmental regulations that protect our land, water, air and biodiversity for all of us, in order to help big corporations save money, while restricting the most basic freedom, a woman’s right to choose for herself whether or not to have a child, doesn’t that seem a bit hypocritical?  Think about that.  Think about who is free and who is not under this kind of governance.  It looks to me like the “freedom” is intended for the extremely wealthy “privileged” and not actually for the rest of us.

So, what’s a confused, overwhelmed citizen to do?  For one thing, if you care about the future and our democracy, at least try and get informed by paying attention to actual ethical news that can be fact-checked and verified, and not propaganda and lies designed to brainwash starry-eyed followers of some obsolete reality show host into making bad uninformed voting decisions that make things worse.  The republicans didn’t used to do this, but the party has become extremely corrupt, and can no longer be trusted to support their constituents, or even to tell the truth, much less take steps to help our planet.  They have proven time and again that they’re here strictly for the wealthy and themselves, and not to serve democracy.  U.S. congress took 34 years to finally get around to passing a significant piece of climate legislation after Jim Hansen first testified before the Senate in 1988, that climate change was real and dangerous.  This was the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Biden, that Trump began trashing the minute he got into office, the latest example of conservatives undoing any progressive efforts to mitigate our destruction of our world.

In our country we now have the democratic party and the fascist party.  There’s a thin line between fascism and dictatorship, and actually I think we’re in more of a dictatorship, given all the oligarchs that surround Trump.  Either way, we’re definitely not free anymore.  The people are no longer running the country.  I’m not saying we were truly free before Trump took over.  I mean, are we truly free if we’re constantly manipulated into spending our hard-earned dollars to maintain impossible perpetual economic growth and destroy our planet?  The reality is that when wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, the inequality creates a level of political influence that corrupts democracy.

Since 2005, the fossil fuel industry has spent $1.7 billion in the U.S. on lobbying and campaign donations, so it’s no wonder they tend to get their way.¹³  With all those handouts, it’s no wonder that our elected officials cater to big oil rather than their constituents.  This also explains why known toxic petrochemicals like Styrofoam and Roundup are still legal, and why most people don’t understand the horrendous damage they do.  And why solar and wind energy in the U.S. is still at a measly 11% of total national energy, when the Germans are at 47%.  Senator Rand Paul (R) actually tried to force the U.S. Postal Service to auction off its entire electric fleet, some 7,200 trucks and charging stations under big oil’s thumb.  He tried to pitch it as saving, but it would actually waste $1.6 billion of taxpayer dollars.  How sleezy is that? Do you feel like you can trust that guy?

Now we have the republicans actively dismissing science, calling out global warming as a hoax, and spreading as much disinformation as possible, funded by big oil.  Republican are attacking women’s rights, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, immigration, LGBTQ rights and every environmental policy ever put in place, mainly through the will of the people.  Does that feel like we’re gaining rights and freedom or losing them?  Hello?

And we had Democrats led by Biden emphasizing the reality of climate change and the absolute necessity of mitigation.  Biden, who actually paid attention to climate information, such as the National Climate Assessment, stated that “This assessment shows us in clear scientific terms that climate change is impacting all regions, all sectors of the United States, not just some, all.”  He followed that with nearly $6 billion in funding to foster climate resilience in the U.S. in 2023.  We had a truly intelligent and proactive President and we let him go in favor of a clueless demented thug.

              In December of 2023, on the anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, Biden urged Americans to protect ecosystems and biodiversity.  He asked that we “honor all the progress we have made toward protecting endangered species, and come together to conserve our planet.”  In the face of a MAGA Republican anti-environmental congress, his administration managed to invest billions of dollars in forest management, ecosystem restoration, and protection of watersheds, as well as making historic investments in addressing climate change.  As president, he has protected more U.S. lands and waters than any president since John F. Kennedy.¹⁵  He also protected huge amounts of coastal waters from future oil and gas leasing.  The Trump administration vowed to drill, baby, drill, once they were in charge.

The information in the box clearly shows a trend when it comes to environmental voting.  By the way, you can easily look up your senators and representatives to see where they stand on the League of Conservation Voters Congressional Voting Records website.¹¹  It’s pretty clear that if your representatives are democrats, they are very likely to favor the environment in their voting, while if they’re republicans, not so much. 

My suggestion is to only vote for leaders who support efforts to protect our environment and control our population growth.  It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle they’re on, check out their agenda on the internet, check how they’ve voted in the past, what they say they’re going to support in the future, and then decide who to vote for. 

Obviously, a lot has to change in our politics and our government in order to save our planet. 

·       First and foremost is to keep our democracy for reals and not allow a dictator to take over.  If we can’t get that done, we’re hosed. 

·       We have to cap campaign funding.  Insane donations from wealthy individuals and corporations are resulting in puppets that represent the wealthy and not the people.

·       Reject candidates who support the nonsensical “tax reform” that’s reducing tax on the wealthy and taking money away from the rest of us.

·       Beware of candidates that project hate and divisiveness, and bash their opponents rather than honestly describing their own platform.  This should be common sense.  After all, generally in life, most of us understand that gossips and bad-mouthers aren’t to be trusted, so why would it be any different for politicians? Shouldn't our leaders be examples of responsibility? Hello?

·       Bother to fact check your candidates to keep them honest.  This, too, is simple common sense.  Or should be.  You’d think.

·       Support candidates that vote for and not against efforts to save and protect our environment and wildlife.  This includes population control.

·       Don’t vote for candidates that are known to cheat, such as on their tax returns and in business dealings or have been convicted of crimes by juries.  No one is above the law, including and particularly our national leaders.  They shouldn’t even be allowed to run for office.  We need honest, ethical leaders, not lying cheats who lack ethics.

·       Don’t vote for candidates who are known to be close to communist or fascist leaders.  If they are wasting their time with this kind of scum, it can’t be good.  Especially if they’re forcing their staff to leave meetings so they can meet privately with these kinds of smarmy leaders.  Once again. Hello? McFly?

·       Reject candidates who are known insurrectionists.  This is treason in our country and punishable by death.  Or at least it was.  Again.  Common sense. 

·       We need courageous leaders who stand for democracy and will stand up for democracy.  We don’t need a bunch of spineless has-been conservatives who will watch a bad president turn us into a dictatorship and murder and invade private citizens homes without due process without doing anything about it. 

·       Vote for women, if they are responsible candidates.  The bias we have in this country against women in leadership is absurd and backwards.  The fact is that women represent only 26.7% of national legislators globally.  There is evidence that gender equity leads to more effective climate policies.¹⁶  This is because basically, women are smarter.  For the most part.  If nothing else, we’re more empathetic.  For the most part.

·       Voter suppression should be treated as a form of treason in this country.  After all, that’s what it is.  If we want to save our planet, we can’t vote for environmentally-friendly candidates if voting is made inaccessible by manipulating cheaters who can’t win any other way. 

·       Always vote.