The surveys underestimate the importance of climate change

Polls underestimate the importance of climate change to the average American. Each election cycle, pollsters focus on the core issues the American public cares about. These issues can make or break an American family as parents prepare their children for school in the morning and try to figure out how to pay their bills in the evening.

Traditionally, we call these issues “kitchen table” and they include everything from the economy to education to housing to healthcare. But this election season, for voters, our climate is now determining decisions about where they live, how they consume, whether they rebuild or even evacuate. What pollsters miss in their rankings of the most important issues is the fact that every other major issue facing Americans will get worse if we don't address climate change.

Economic and scientific models paint a challenging future. In the era of climate crisis, costs are skyrocketing as crop failures occur due to drought and extreme heat. Insurance premiums are skyrocketing as flood and fire risks become guarantees. Property values ​​are declining as beachfront properties are swamped by the beaches they once graced. As climate change worsens, we can expect human health to be impacted by the increasing spread of infectious diseases, worsening air quality, and worsening mental health due to climate anxiety. We see a particular burden on environmental justice for women, youth and people of color.

The reality is that climate change is no longer a distant issue. We are currently living in the era of climate crisis and are seeing alarming impacts across our country. Devastating disasters like Hurricanes Helene and Milton have devastated the Southeast, with warming oceans increasing the severity of the storms. Fire season continues to spread across the West, forcing thousands of Americans from their homes. At this point, none of this is new, and Americans are constantly dealing with these issues at home.

These overlapping crises have damaged national morale. Young voters are particularly disillusioned, as a Harvard poll in the spring found that only 9 percent of young Americans thought the country was generally heading in the right direction. Meanwhile, a July poll from Climate Power found that two-thirds of voters view extreme weather as a kitchen table issue in their household.

As leading progressive lawmakers and leaders of the climate movement, we agree with this majority. Concepts of a plan are not enough when the American public is bombarded with one climate disaster after another. It's time to treat climate like a kitchen table issue instead of relegating it to the sidelines.

In the pages of her latest policy plans, Vice President Kamala Harris is doing just that. As Evergreen Action recently summarized, Harris has begun to formalize the connections between housing, health care, economics and climate policy that the American public and the climate movement have been making for decades.

For example, their new economic plan advocates for “America Forward” tax incentives that promote cleaner steel and cement, protect jobs for American unions while reorienting our industrial sector toward decarbonization. Its housing policy calls for building 1.2 million affordable, energy-efficient housing units, expanding access to American housing while reducing energy consumption. Finally, their plan connects healthcare, childcare and education to our green future and reinforces the fact that we can only raise safe, happy and healthy children if we protect a planet that supports these conditions.

With each of these actions, Harris is taking a bold step to put climate front and center in this election cycle as a critical issue that matters to the American voter as much as the schools their children attend and the price of their grocery store purchases .

It might seem odd to see a congressman and an activist working together on such an essay. In a way we are opposites. One of us is on the ground mobilizing a grassroots movement of voters around a systemic climate agenda. The other is a congressman who represents Silicon Valley and works within the system to create national change and advance clean technology innovation.

But we are both fighting for bold action on inequality and climate. For both of us, the climate crisis is personal. Like Harris, we are both South Asian, and our communities face disproportionate environmental justice burdens in the wake of disasters. We agree that we can no longer hesitate when it comes to climate protection. Together we push for systemic change from the top down and bottom up.

And that starts with changing our national discourse so that it truly reflects the reality of everyday Americans. Climate justice provides the framework for every other issue on the ballot this fall.

The difficult choices that climate change is forcing on American families are not an inevitability or an abstraction. They are real, they are omnipresent and they are actively unfolding. We need to start enacting – and voting on – appropriate legislation.

In this election, one candidate has a long history of fighting for climate justice. The other is deep in the pockets of the oil industry and is selling out the American public for campaign contributions. Harris has made great strides on climate policy, and voters should continue to push her to keep it front and center: right on the kitchen table, where she has already appeared.