Voters must put heat on Congress

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Not surprisingly, given the nature of activism in general and the warming planet in particular, younger voters were three times as likely to list climate change as the country's most important issue in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll.

The problem for advocates — actually, the problem for all of us — is that just 1% of those polled overall and 3% of those under 30 named climate change as the No. 1 issue facing the nation.

Far more Americans are prioritizing prices at the pump and grocery store, as well as other economic matters. Among Democrats in particular, "democracy-related," "gun-related" and "abortion-related" issues were rated much higher.

Significant problems, all. But in timing that might remind voters of the essential, even existential, nature of the climate crisis, record temperatures are scorching multiple continents this week. Europe experienced scores of heat-induced illnesses and deaths as well as wildfires in the countryside and even in urban areas, including London. And in France, officials grimly warned of a "heat apocalypse."

It's not that extreme here at home, but the overall trend is unmistakable. This state's average daily temperature in July has risen from 73.8 degrees to 74.3 degrees over the past 20 years. Over the past 22 years, only five Julys have fallen below that new average, according to the Minnesota Climatology Office and reported by the Star Tribune.

The scientific consensus is overwhelming that rising temperatures are related to climate change. Political consensus is underwhelming, however, and lately is marked more by reversals than advances. The U.S. Supreme Court recently crimped the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate carbon dioxide from electric power plants, and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin recently crushed President Joe Biden's ambitious efforts on climate change. Those included clean-energy tax breaks and subsidies to buy electric vehicles in the already scaled-down Build Back Better bill.

As a political issue, climate change seems to mostly animate activists on each side of the issue — those with sweeping proposed solutions and those determined to stop them. The vast majority may seem sympathetic to the need for change but don't act with enthusiasm when it comes to voting or advocating directly to elected officials.

Most do want Congress to act, however. In fact, 61% of them told a Yale poll cited by the Times that they want Capitol Hill action, while 57% said the same about their state's governor and 52% looked to Biden to act. The president indeed may do so by declaring a climate emergency. But what's needed is strong consensus and legislative action that can triumph over the trope that a presidential declaration is an overreach. Indeed, the government and much of society are underreaching compared to the scope and scale of the problem.

To prevent a catastrophe, acting on climate change is a must. "What I want most as a climate scientist is for us to find a way to embrace climate change alongside our immediate needs," Jessica Hellmann, executive director at the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, told an editorial writer in an e-mail interview. "We simply cannot kick the can because we're occupied with other things."

Hellmann cited two key factors. "First, climate change is an immediate thing. It's affecting Europe today. It's affecting California today. Climate science clearly demonstrates that weather patterns and weather hazards are changing, and the impacts are already accumulating. Those impacts affect every continent and sector, from ag to health to biodiversity. There are some things that we can do to reduce those impacts, but that adaptation is pricey, and no one can escape that cost as long as the climate keeps changing."

Hellmann said that the intelligent approach is to address climate change "in a way that helps with those other immediate needs." As just one example, she cites locally produced renewable energy, which is less susceptible to fossil-fuel price fluctuations and "bottlenecks in the global energy supply chain."

Climate change can no longer be ignored or subjugated to other issues — the climate crisis needs commensurate climate concern, which voters must register on Election Day and beyond.