POLITICAL CLIMATE: Vote For Your Future
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"Political Climate: Vote for Your Future" is a powerful telling of the climate crisis threatening our world, the importance of elections in shaping our response to that crisis, and the role that young people—even those too young to vote—play in determining the outcome of those elections. Narrated by youth activist and environmental filmmaker Dylan D’Haeze, Political Climate assembles a range of voices—from activists to politicians, students to teachers, famous musicians to inspired 6-year-olds—to emphasize the existential danger posed by climate change and the efforts by young people to confront that danger through political activism.
Examining the corrupting influence of money on our political system, with special attention to the infamous “Citizens United” case, Political Climate highlights the $1 billion spent by the fossil fuel industry in just the last five years to influence the outcome of elections. It notes that as early as 1966, the coal industry itself predicted that “rapidly increasing CO2 in earth’s atmosphere” would result in the “melting of the polar caps” and “vast changes in the climates of the earth”—and that the industry would have to distract the public from this crisis to protect its income.
Fighting this deception, however, are youth groups like the Youth Progressive Policy Institute and Zero Hour, who—along with thousands of elementary, middle, and high school students—are raising awareness and mobilizing voters to elect leaders with the courage and sense to make climate change a top priority. They are organizing events like the Worldwide Walkout, testifying in state capitols and in Washington, D.C., and demonstrating how social movements can lead to profound change—in fact, they are often the only thing that does.
Climate change should not be a partisan issue: the first Earth Day, in 1970, was enthusiastically supported by both Democrats and Republicans, and it was Richard Nixon who signed the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts into law. When he did so, he argued, “Each of us, all across this land, has a stake in maintaining and improving the environmental quality.” Political Climate shows how kids are taking their stand in this endeavor—and how they really can change the world.
Examining the corrupting influence of money on our political system, with special attention to the infamous “Citizens United” case, Political Climate highlights the $1 billion spent by the fossil fuel industry in just the last five years to influence the outcome of elections. It notes that as early as 1966, the coal industry itself predicted that “rapidly increasing CO2 in earth’s atmosphere” would result in the “melting of the polar caps” and “vast changes in the climates of the earth”—and that the industry would have to distract the public from this crisis to protect its income.
Fighting this deception, however, are youth groups like the Youth Progressive Policy Institute and Zero Hour, who—along with thousands of elementary, middle, and high school students—are raising awareness and mobilizing voters to elect leaders with the courage and sense to make climate change a top priority. They are organizing events like the Worldwide Walkout, testifying in state capitols and in Washington, D.C., and demonstrating how social movements can lead to profound change—in fact, they are often the only thing that does.
Climate change should not be a partisan issue: the first Earth Day, in 1970, was enthusiastically supported by both Democrats and Republicans, and it was Richard Nixon who signed the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts into law. When he did so, he argued, “Each of us, all across this land, has a stake in maintaining and improving the environmental quality.” Political Climate shows how kids are taking their stand in this endeavor—and how they really can change the world.
