The narratives swirling around us right now are potent, messy, and constantly shifting—and that’s exactly why we need to make sense of them, together. This resource analyzed the narratives leading up to the 2024 election, focusing on economic issues, immigration, voting rights, race and gender justice. The mood and tone in election conversations were agitational, authoritative, urgent, concerned, informative, hopeful and empowering. Core values included equity, accountability, compassion, justice, empowerment, autonomy, integrity, community, safety and security. It is clear movement strategists, organizers and allied formations must: pool resources, invest the time and capacity together, expand reach, and tell better stories.

Voters across the political spectrum would rather see the EPA strengthened than cut, and want to see its new leadership focus on environmental protection rather than repealing regulations. By a 69%-31% margin, voters say that the EPA’s next leader should focus on implementing environmental protections like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act (69%) rather than focus on repealing regulations and cutting the EPA’s staff and budgets (31%). Voters are far more likely to say that the EPA should be strengthened (50%) or remain the same (36%) than to say that it should be weakened or eliminated (14%). 80% of voters support increasing federal funding to communities that are disproportionately harmed by air and water pollution.

Here is a roadmap based on the social change ecosystem framework for how individuals, collectives, and organizations can try to meet this moment, and prepare for what is ahead. Spend time with anger, grief, and disappointment. Lean into curiosity and reflection. Find local community ecosystems. Map our roles. Pace ourselves with quarterly check-ins.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including findings from the major surveys of voters who participated in Tuesday’s election.

Trump voters have much less confidence in him to handle climate change than other issues. While 90%+ of Trump voters say that he is better able to handle most of the issues that were included in the survey, climate change ranks at the very bottom with just over half of his voters (56%) saying that he is better able to handle the issue than Harris: immigration – 95% of Trump voters trust Trump to handle; the economy – 94%; the situation in the Middle East – 91%; crime – 90%; health care – 78%; abortion policy – 66%; climate change – 56%.

Even while electing Trump, most voters said that they’re concerned about climate change and that the country should prioritize clean energy over fossil fuels. Climate voters were the most reliable voting bloc for Harris. 65% of voters who participated in the election said that they’re concerned about the effects of climate change in their community. 56% of voters who participated in the election said that the country should focus on expanding clean energy over fossil fuels. Harris carried the “very” concerned group by a wide margin (78%-20%), though the race was much closer among the “somewhat” concerned group (54% Harris / 44% Trump). Trump, meanwhile, built up massive margins among voters who dismissed the problem. He carried the 19% of voters who were “not too concerned” about climate change by 60 points (79%-19%) and won the 15% of voters who were “not at all concerned” about climate change by 88 points (93%-5%).

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on environmental and energy issues in the presidential race, new polling about Americans’ attitudes and beliefs about different energy sources, and new polling about government funding for clean infrastructure projects.

Voters overwhelmingly support government investment in clean infrastructure projects and don’t want funding to go to bad actors with histories of pollution. Around two-thirds of voters (67% support / 23% oppose) support investments in clean infrastructure projects such as solar and carbon capture after reading that the U.S. Department of Energy is awarding funding for these projects following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These investments earn overwhelming support from Democrats (85%) and independents (69%), and are also supported by half of Republicans (50% support / 38% oppose). Large majorities of voters, including 79%+ of Democrats and 65%+ of Republicans, say that developers should be required to be in compliance with various laws in order to receive federal funding for clean infrastructure projects.

A hard-fought presidential campaign has yet to persuade majorities of voters that the president’s landmark spending initiatives have made their lives better. New polling found that fewer than 3 in 10 voters said President Joe Biden’s big legislative policy changes had improved their lives and communities. Voters’ attitudes about massive domestic spending initiatives have either barely budged or slightly dimmed since April, despite six more months of campaigning by both parties in the run-up to next week’s election. People were more likely than they were last spring to say they don’t know what effect the laws have had. Self-described political independents are significantly more bullish on the president’s climate law than they were six months ago, the survey found. And the number of voters who called the Biden-backed laws harmful was significantly lower than those who said the legislation had either benefited them or had a mixed impact: just 24% said the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has “positively” affected them, while 19% said it has had negative effects and 24% called it a mix.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on Americans’ policy positions on energy and environmental issues, new polling on Americans’ beliefs about the presidential candidates’ stances on energy and the environment, new polling and message testing about the recent hurricanes and disinformation, and a new large-scale survey of young Americans’ climate beliefs.