Letter | ‘Climate’ should be the prevailing election issue - Santa Cruz Sentinel

Letter | ‘Climate’ should be the prevailing election issue - Santa Cruz Sentinel

Environmental Voters Project polling shows that in 2022, the top three election issues for Americans were inflation, economy/jobs, and gun control (sharing third place with reproduction). Only 15% of voters polled showed climate as a main concern, and of those, only 4% are consistent voters. So even though climate collapse is increasingly affecting our lives, our homes, our livelihoods, our very way of life, it doesn’t loom prominently on our list of voting priorities. But shouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it be worth looking at each of the candidates’ websites that you are being asked to vote for on March 5 to see what they have to say about the existential crisis that is not so slowly insinuating itself into our daily lives and threatening the well-being of young people who by and large do prioritize climate?

Whether or not you’ve voted, please go to your candidates’ websites and scour them for the word “climate” (don’t settle for “environment” alone). Is your candidate prioritizing our greatest challenge? If not, reconsider!

— Lynda Marín, Santa Cruz

The Sentinel welcomes your letters to the editor. Letters should be short, no more than 175 words. We do not accept anonymous letters. Letter-writers should include their full name as well as a street address and telephone number. We don’t publish those details in the newspaper, but need the information for verification purposes. Occasionally, we reject letters simply because we’ve had so many on the same subject. Submit your letters online at www.santacruzsentinel.com/submit-letters.