This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on the Inflation Reduction Act and its specific provisions, as well as a new summary of polling on climate justice issues

Overall, seven in ten people in the U.S. (70%) support transitioning the U.S. economy (including electric utilities, transportation, buildings, and industry) from fossil fuels to 100% clean energy by 2050. About two in three Americans (68%) support increasing funding to low-income communities and communities of color who are disproportionately harmed by air and water pollution. About eight in ten Americans (79%) support providing federal funding to make residential buildings in low-income communities more energy efficient. About six in ten people in the U.S. (61%) think increasing production of clean energy in the U.S. will produce more new jobs than will increasing fossil fuel production, while about four in ten (38%) think the opposite (that increasing fossil fuel production will create more jobs than will increasing clean energy production). About eight in ten Americans support re-establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps, which would employ workers to protect natural ecosystems, plant trees in rural and urban areas, and restore the soil on farmlands (83%), creating a jobs program to hire unemployed oil and gas workers to safely close down abandoned oil and gas wells (81%), and creating a jobs program that would hire unemployed coal workers to safely close down old coal mines and restore the natural landscape (81%). While a majority of nearly all major demographic groups supports these climate justice-related policies, support is consistently higher among Black respondents, Hispanic/Latino respondents, and respondents from all other non-white racial groups (i.e., Asian, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, as well as people who identify with two or more racial groups) compared with white, non-Hispanic/Latino respondents. Nevertheless, the differences in support among different race/ethnicity groups are relatively small, especially for policies to create climate-friendly jobs.

Voters aren’t hearing much about the Inflation Reduction Act, but more support than oppose all of its major provisions after learning about them. The IRA policies to address prescription drug costs, budget deficit score higher than the renewables push. Drug pricing reforms have the support of roughly 3 in 4 voters. About 3 in 5 voters back tax credits for consumers that use renewable household energy sources, while a nearly equal share supports a 15% minimum corporate tax rate. The only measure drawing less than 50% support is $80 billion to the IRS for improved enforcement. 77% of voters support caps on prescription drug price increases, 73% are in favor of granting Medicare the ability to negotiate some prescription drug prices and 72% back a $2,000 limit on annual out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for seniors. A proposal that offers tax credits for consumers with renewable household energy sources garnered the most support of the energy-related measures, with the backing of roughly 2 in 3 voters, including 1 in 2 Republicans, who were largely opposed to every other climate provision in the package. While 3 in 5 Democratic voters supported the funding to the agency to improve enforcement, 57% of Republicans and 42% of independents opposed it.

Three new polls find that Americans overwhelmingly support the new Inflation Reduction Act negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). A Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that 61% of Americans favor the proposals to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and cap out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 a year. And 53% favor the corporate tax increases and deficit reduction in the legislation. Independents support each element of the Manchin-Schumer deal by the same wide margins as Americans overall — and even a plurality of Republicans favor (47%) rather than oppose (27%) its prescription-drug reforms. Similarly, a poll by Data for Progress finds that 73% of likely voters support the legislation when told it will lower costs for families, ramp up clean energy production, lower prescription drug costs and reduce the deficit. And a Navigator Research poll, conducted by the Democratic firm Global Strategy Group and obtained by HuffPost, found that about two-thirds of voters support the plan while 24% oppose it.

There are some key strategies that grassroots groups can employ to avoid dissolving. These are especially helpful for student-run groups, which can struggle to pass along the group's resources and knowledge to the next generation of student organizers, as many lack a permanence of structure. These strategies include: support and guide new members via training and upskilling; build institutional memory; create a blueprint for group operations; have strong onboarding and outboarding processes; institutionalize involvement; engage with the student association/body; get teachers to support your campaign(s); outline institutions in your school; get support from staff unions; and create solidarity with staff causes. This report describes these strategies in detail. Some specific challenges by student groups have included: divestment organizers were concerned about groups who won and didn’t know where to go from there; groups have been struggling to navigate online organizing; there are ongoing concerns related to general turnover and capacity when students graduate (particularly those who have been members of a group for a while; a lack of support from former members leads to more energy and time needed to restart after a high rate of turnover; anger towards the school administration leads to forgetting about turnover periods, thus the workload for the next semester is larger.             

There are some key ways for activists to make their spaces more accessible—to ensure everyone is welcome and encouraged to join movements in whatever way they can. These include: understanding the right choice of location for events/actions; meeting attendee needs; creating space for every identity; employ proper pandemic safety measures. For virtual events and meetings, consider preparation before the meeting and use specific in-meeting tactics. Regarding communications, use clear language and modes of communication that all potential audiences can understand. Write image descriptions. Also, be sure to foster a group culture dedicated to accessibility.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on voters’ reactions to arguments from the two parties on climate change; the impact of climate change and the environment on battleground voters’ decisions in the upcoming midterms; an experiment in communicating about human-caused climate change using a “heat-trapping blanket” metaphor; Americans’ personal experiences with climate change; and the widening generational gap in Republicans’ environmental attitudes.