Want to Protect Woodlands, Prairies and Wetlands? Vote.

I received this article from Jessica Campbell and Lois Johnson of the McHenry County chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby and would like to share it with you as the November elections are approaching.

More than 20 million registered voters in the United States say the environment is one of their top two concerns. So why don’t politicians prioritize environmental legislation—including policies that protect the natural areas that make McHenry County a wonderful place to live? Simple: They know environmentalists don’t vote.

“Environmentalists are disproportionately awful voters,” according to Nathaniel Stinnett, the founder of the Environmental Voter Project. His organization has found that of voters who prioritize the environment, a group Stinnett calls “super environmentalists,” only about half voted in the 2016 presidential election and only one-fifth voted in the last primary election.

Politicians know this, too. They have access to the same public voting records and polling data Stinnett’s group used. They know focusing on the environment won’t get them elected.

Stinnett founded the Environmental Voter Project to change this. His goal is to turn super environmentalists into super voters—in numbers that will get politicians’ attention.

You can help by signing the environmental voter pledge at environmentalvoter.org and encouraging others to do so as well.