What Midterms?

It’s worse than we feared.

Since the current administration took office, they’ve taken arusted chainsaw to decades of hard-won environmental regulationsthat, if imperfect, helped millions of Americans leadhealthier lives, protected millions of acres of public land andrepresented crucial first steps for addressing the climate crisis.

Sucking up to failing industries, they’ve made it OK to dumptoxic waste into local streams, for obsolete power plants tospew poisons, and they’re even considering letting uraniummines contaminate drinking water. They’ve rescinded banson offshore oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic, andproposed opening nearly all U.S. waters—and several nationalparks—to drilling, too. They’ve rolled back efforts to reducemethane leaks—methane being a shorter-lived, but far morepotent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. And let’s not forgetthe president’s unilateral withdrawal from the Paris climateagreement. We’re getting cooked.

However, there is a glimmer of hope in all of this—it’s you.

Everywhere we look, we’ve been inspired by people like youwho understand that if we don’t change course, we’ll be the nextendangered species.

You’ve turned out in record numbers at protests. From the200,000 of you that jammed the streets of Washington, D.C., forthe April 2017 People’s Climate March, to the 50,000 more whomarched in sister city demonstrations, to the 6,000 of you whoturned out to protest the president’s proposed reduction ofBears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.

You’ve been in touch with government officials like they’re family: 228,518 of you contacted your legislators, submitting 152,175 comments and making 5,802 phone calls in less than a week.

You’ve volunteered more than $1 million worth of hours to environmental nonprofits (see page 105).

But you can’t let up now.

You’ve got to vote in this November’s midterms elections.

Midterms typically lag behind the presidential years, and in 2014, the turnout was more pathetic than it’s been since 1942 when many eligible voters were deployed overseas. Only 36 percent of eligible American voters cast a ballot. A little more than a third.

For those who do give a damn, there’s an opportunity in this apathy—it means you can have an even bigger impact if you do show up.

Between now and November 6, we’ll track several key Senate, congressional and gubernatorial races online, so you can get educated on the issues and public lands fights, and learn which candidates are committed to addressing global warming.

“It is a very serious time in the story of this planet where we have the potential to destroy our natural world or to save this lovely blue planet—our home,” says Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. “We used to be called citizens, not consumers. We can still act like citizens by exercising our right and responsibility to vote.”