VOTE and a Quiz to Help You Find Your Role in Climate Action

Today is Election Day in the United States. If you are eligible to vote and have not yet voted PLEASE VOTE TODAY. Many states and districts have very close election contests where every vote will count.

Even if it seems that the elections in your area are not close, there is a reason I think it is very important for people who care about climate to vote. The Environmental Voter Project estimates that 8 million environmentalists did not vote in the 2020 presidential election and 12 million didn’t vote in the 2018 midterms. Clearly these voters could have had a very large impact if they had all voted. More important now, is that the more climate voters everywhere vote, the more it will be clear to politicians that leading on climate will be vital to electoral success in the future.

Finding your role in climate action
Taking action on climate is clearly important. It’s important to solving the climate crisis. It’s important in helping each of us feel more purposeful and less despairing and hopeless about climate. But lots of people don’t know what to do. Street protest isn’t for everyone, neither is lobbying your state legislators.

Now two climate author/activists have designed an engaging “quiz” that leads the reader through a series of options that helps you identify what sort of climate action might best fit your preferences and personality. The quiz became available on the Yale Climate Connections website in October 2022. It’s reminiscent of the simple identification keys that are available for helping to identify flowers. It asks you items like these:

• Are you ready to act, or do you need a little encouragement?
• Are you happiest when you are working for something or against something?
• Do you like to act alone, or are you ready to join with other people?
• Does climate injustice concern you most, or environmental devastation?

At each step you are offered two statements and you choose the one that best describes you. Your choice determines where the quiz sends you next–almost like a “choose-your-own-adventure.” When you arrive at your “personal climate calling” the authors present multiple options for getting involved with links to organizations to work with and other helpful suggestions.

Most people seem to enjoy both the structure and the friendly, supportive tone of it. I did it once picking my own options (about 5 minutes); and then I read through it all (15-20 minutes). I was glad I did both. Each of the many end points offers so many good and varied ideas for getting involved in helping to solve the climate crisis. I’m going to keep this blog post short so you have time to try the quiz now.

One item of good climate news
A new analysis conducted for the well-respected Carbon Brief website finds that the recent victory of the Brazilian presidential candidate known as “Lula” could cut Brazilian Amazon deforestation by 89%. This would be a tremendous change after the climate-destroying policies of the ousted president Jair Bolsonaro. Brazil is currently the sixth largest emitter of greenhouse gases of all nations in the world.

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The photo above was taken on the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica by Russ Vernon-Jones.

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