“I’ve ridden what some would call some pretty crazy mountains out there, but nothing as tricky as Capitol Hill,” joked Jeremy Jones on stage at The Inertia‘s inaugural EVOLVE Summit back in August. The remark was well received. The crowd applauded and laughed. But it was made in the context of the recent pivot of Protect Our Winters, the advocacy group Jones founded to help fight climate change, toward policy and specifically taking the fight to Washington.
On July 18, POW announced on Instagram the founding of a sister organization – a 501(c)(4) called the POW Action Fund – designed for “talking all things election and helping to provide you with the tools you need to show up at the midterms this November,” according to the post. “Together, we’ll show the climate deniers in office the door.”
Recently, POW Action Fund put together a public service announcement imploring individuals that are passionate about the environment and climate change policy to vote in the upcoming midterm elections this November.
The statistics are disarming. In the 2014 midterms, 87 percent of 18 to 29 year-olds didn’t vote. And in that same year, only 36 percent of registered voters turned up at the polls.
The implicit connection, of course, is that when large swaths of the nation don’t turn up to vote, the result is representatives that deny the existence of climate change – even though Americans overwhelmingly believe climate change is harmful.
The ad is nothing if not jarring, but it offers a way to be held accountable to vote this November. By texting “IWILLVOTE” to 52886. You can learn more here or at POW Action Fund’s website.
