Voter suppression is a climate justice issue — and 2020 is the tipping point

Tamara Toles O’Laughlin is the North America director of 350.org . Peggy Shepard is cofounder and executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice . Imagine gathering everything you can carry to flee your home in the wake of a wildfire and returning to find the charred remnants of your life. Or losing a grandparent to heat stroke because they couldn’t afford an air conditioner during a heat wave . Or having your house flooded and moldy from storm surge, only to learn that you aren’t covered anymore by insurance.

These are some of the impacts of climate change happening all over our country. We have less than 10 years to halt the worst of the climate crisis . With just days to go until the election of our lives and early voting already underway, we must vote to make clear that the climate crisis is the top issue of concern to us. But the very same communities facing environmental injustice and the worst of the climate crisis — Black, Indigenous, and communities of color — are also most likely to face targeted voter suppression. There are examples aplenty: In “ Cancer Alley ,” which runs through Texas and […]

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