Blog Post #6 Why I Will Never Call Myself an Environmentalist (Even Though I Am)

Environmentalists are empathetic and compassionate, passionate and perseverant. They are also
undervalued. But they have trouble with strategic communication. As I mentioned in
my first science communicator blog post, people who care about the environment need to be
more tactical. Rather than try to convince voters to protect the environment for the greater good,
they need to appeal to more selfish, individualistic concerns.


Instead of helping voters understand the more impactful ecosystem services that nature provides,
they focus on clean air and water, which most Americans already have. That’s not entirely
wrong, clean air and water are still under threat from the modern Republican Party. The Supreme
Court recently repealed essential water protections for millions of Americans. It will forever be
important to maintain environmental victories already gained, but the biggest fights are for the
future. And in order to win those fights, the arguments of environmentalists have to shift and
their strategy has to evolve.


The most effective strategy will be two-pronged. The first prong is for activists to keep their eyes
on old victories in order to maintain them. Environmentalists should work with the Democratic
Party to fight twice as hard as they currently are in the court system and equally hard in Congress
so the retrograde rulings of the Supreme Court can be mitigated and replaced. The second and
most impactful prong: craft a smarter political communication strategy that begins by rebranding
environmentalists as enviro-humanists.


Democrats need to win over swing voters in general elections. Democrats and Republicans don’t
stray from their political camps, but swing voters decide gilded age elections when they choose
who to vote for at the last minute. Therefore, every argument about the environment to
undecided or swing voters should always be delivered so the voter feels that these votes directly
affect humanity, the economy, their financial stability and their personal health. And it doesn’t
have to be all doom and gloom; the emphasis can be on creating a world where a thriving
economy and a healthy environment can co-exist (for more information on this, read my political
economy blog posts).


Protecting landmark environmental laws is critical. Moreover, updating the term
environmentalist to enviro-humanist switches the conversation from an ineffective moral one to a
mantra that can resonate with even the most self-interested voter. We are all in this together. We
are all affected by it. And we’re going to change it together.

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