Environmental Voter Project identified over 11 million potential environmentalists in Fall of 2020 who were “unlikely to vote in the presidential election.” Increasing environmental voter turnout could make a significant impact on climate policy through legislative action and budget provisions. This week, listen to Dr. Martin Rees in a California China Climate Institute discussion. For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/how-environmental-voters-can-influence-climate-policy-with-dr-martin-rees-california-china-climate-institute/
For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/how-environmental-voters-can-influence-climate-policy-with-dr-martin-rees-california-china-climate-institute/
Rees: There is a far wider awareness of the climate crisis as being a global emergency and it's important that individual voters should care because politicians won't take action if they don't think they'll keep their voters behind them.
Ethan: That’s Dr. Martin Rees, British astrophysicist and cosmologist. He spoke to Former California Governor Jerry Brown during a recent California China Climate Institute discussion.
Rees: It would be important to accelerate the technologies. One could have a more efficient solar, much cheaper batteries, ways of storing energy for six months over seasons and also we might want to have some Grid, which is transcontinental or worldwide even to allow renewable energy to be transferred from where it's generated to where it's needed. The amount of money being spent on R and D in energy, it's tiny compared to defense.
Ethan: The US still has a largely underrepresented environmental voting block. The Environmental Voter Project has identified over 15 million non-voting environmentalists. For context, roughly 125 million people vote in general elections, and barely 80 million people vote in midterm elections. If these environmental voters turned out, they could have a big impact on where money is being spent.
Ethan: To learn more about Dr. Martin Rees and his work, visit climatebreak.org, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Ethan Elkind and this was Climate Break.