“What Can I Do?” Part 3 — The Political

The third and final installment of our miniseries considers the question “What can I do?” from a political perspective. Our expert guests share stories of nailbiter elections for local office and the victorious legislative campaign to ban gas in new buildings in New York City. We lay out a four-step guide to getting pro-climate candidates elected, supporting them in office, and keeping them accountable. This episode features Caroline Spears, founder and executive director of Climate Cabinet, which helps local leaders run, win, and legislate on the climate crisis, and Sonal Jessel, the director of policy at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. We cite this Canadian study on the carbon emissions reductions of a single vote. We also hear about Erin Zwiener in Texas and Lauren Kuby in Arizona as examples of local climate policy leaders. You can find more state and local climate champs at Climate Slate.  Subscribe to A Matter of Degrees wherever you get your podcasts and don’t miss a single episode this season!