A New Story for the Environment

We live in a world of environmental and political wounds. Like the rest of the global community, Americans are facing dangerously accelerating global warming and biodiversity loss as well as threats to our democratic institutions. Many are worried about the continued viability of a political system rocked by extreme polarization. Weary of partisan politics, countless Americans are yearning for political unity, bipartisan solutions, and hope.

The current story of environmental politics has failed the American people. It is a story of political stalemate, partisan division, frustration and hopelessness that drives people away from politics at a time when the need for political engagement could not be more pressing. Individuals may choose to ignore politics, but we cannot ignore planetary realities. Protecting our common planetary home requires all of us, Democrats and Republicans alike. We need a hopeful story of environmental politics that inspires and empowers people to vote, work, and advocate for the protection of our planetary home.

I wrote A World of Wounds: Rebuilding a Bipartisan Environmental Movement and Cultivating Authentic Hope to debunk the conventional story of environmental politics. I argue that the perceived partisan divide in environmental politics has been purposely manufactured by conservative opponents of the environmental movement. This artificial partisan gulf has alienated Americans from each other and masked Americans’ traditional love of our natural heritage. Concern for environmental conservation is deeply embedded in notions of American patriotism. All across the political spectrum, people care about wildlife conservation, public lands, and outdoor recreation as well as clean air and water. Building on this tradition, it is my hope that readers will join their families, neighbors, and communities in reviving a bipartisan environmental movement working to protect our planetary home and democratic heritage. There is no more urgent task before us.—Nancy J. Manring

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Americans need a new story of environmental politics. We need a hopeful story that matches the demands of two interwoven existential threats: the realities of contemporary global environmental problems and threats to American democracy. Like the rest of the global community, we are facing accelerating global warming, biodiversity loss, and novel forms of pollution that endanger human welfare and planetary stability. Americans are frustrated and worried about the continued viability of a political system rocked by extreme polarization. In a nation rife with partisanship, where is a new story of environmental politics to be found? A new story of environmental politics has its roots in our history. We have forgotten the power of the environment to bring people together.

In 1962, Rachel Carson’s landmark book Silent Spring captured the American imagination. Not long after the release of Silent Spring, a string of well-publicized disasters in the late 1960s sent more shockwaves through the American public. Despoiled by unchecked pollution and widespread algae blooms, Lake Erie—the twelfth-largest freshwater lake in the world—was pronounced “dead.” The pristine Santa Barbara coast was tarred by a massive oil spill, and Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River caught on fire. Countless rivers and streams were polluted and choked with litter, and Americans could see, smell, and sometimes even taste air pollution. According to one observer, “Alarm about the environment sprang from nowhere to major proportions in a few short years.”

Americans’ burgeoning environmental worries coincided with the tumultuous politics of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. In the midst of political unrest and social division, concern for the environment became a unifier. Convinced that Americans’ environmental concerns far outpaced current political leadership, Senator Gaylord Nelson conceived the idea of Earth Day. Inspired by anti-war protests, he wanted an environmental demonstration so big that Congress couldn’t ignore it. On April 22, 1970, an estimated 20 million people all across the political spectrum participated in the first Earth Day, rallying for environmental protection. The extraordinary growth of public support for environmentalism paired with bipartisan political leadership led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of an unprecedented number of landmark environmental statutes in the early 1970s including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Endangered Species Act. As the 1970s and 1980s unfolded, Americans were introduced to a string of new hazards ranging from toxic wastes to acid rain, the ozone hole, and global warming. By 1989, three-fourths of Americans identified themselves as environmentalists.

Fast-forward to the present. Scientists have announced that global warming is accelerating, and the impacts of climate change have become impossible to ignore as a growing roster of communities are devastated by catastrophic floods, fires, and record heatwaves.

What if regenerating a bipartisanship environmental movement had broader implications for American society? Could the social cohesion of a bipartisan movement help us rewrite the fractured story of contemporary American politics? Examining the social and economic effects of climate change suggests potential answers to these questions. The International Committee of the Red Cross warns that climate change “may indirectly increase the risk of conflict by exacerbating existing social, economic and environmental factors.” The U.S. military, the United Nations, and security experts agree that global warming is a “threat multiplier” that will intensify societal disruptions, economic losses, and global unrest. However, climate change already is multiplying the economic losses and social disruption caused by extreme weather and wildfires here at home. Climate change has caused billions of dollars in losses due to damaged infrastructure, crop and livestock destruction, real estate losses, rising insurance claims, and overstretched public services. By November 2024, the United States had sustained twenty-four confirmed weather/climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion in 2024 alone.

Repeated global warming–fueled hurricanes, fires, and floods are bankrupting many small communities. Homeowners in states prone to climate change–related disasters are increasingly finding home insurance out of reach. In states like California, Florida, and Louisiana, it is nearly impossible for some homeowners to obtain property insurance; many others can no longer afford soaring premiums. Some homeowners living in high-risk areas already have lost their private home insurance and have turned to state-backed insurance programs. According to the Tampa Bay Times, “a flood of new policyholders are joining state-backed insurance ‘plans of last resort,’ leaving states to assume more of the risk on behalf of residents who can’t find coverage in the private sector.”

Climate change–driven migration and societal disruption, once a topic confined to the global south, is a growing reality in the United States. Headlines in popular news sources proclaim, “Climate Migration Has Come to the United States” and “Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration.” Wildfires, hurricanes, and droughts pose existential threats to communities, particularly in the west and southeast. In 2023, wildfires burned 2.6 million acres, destroying thousands of homes; and fire seasons are starting earlier and growing longer. Hurricane season also is growing longer and more dangerous; Hurricane Beryl made history by becoming the first Category 5 storm on record in July: on July 1, 2024. Hurricanes are becoming more destructive as the energy of global warming fuels catastrophic winds, torrential rains, and record storm surges that cause massive flooding and property destruction, transforming whole communities into debris piles of pick-up sticks.

Some of the most popular cities in the United States—New York City, New Orleans, Boston, and Miami—will be transformed as rising sea levels displace millions. Even now, it floods on sunny days in some southern Florida coastal communities. According to a Forbes magazine survey, “Nearly a third of Americans surveyed cited climate change as a reason to move in 2022.” CBS News reports that about 3 million Americans already are climate migrants. Abrahm Lustgarten, author of On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America, warns that existing trends will only grow worse. He writes,

The United States will be rendered unrecognizable by four unstoppable forces: wildfires in the West; frequent flooding in coastal regions; extreme heat and humidity in the South; and droughts that will make farming all but impossible across much of the nation.

Already, extreme heat increases the risk of suicide among American farmers.

In 2021, The Lancet published a warning from the editors of more than 200 medical journals worldwide. Noting that the “science is unequivocal,” they cautioned that global warming and biodiversity loss pose the risk of “catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse.”

In the summer of 2023, wildfires raging across Canada sent smoke over the border, triggering air quality alerts in eighteen states from Montana to New York and as far south as Georgia; the alerts lasted for days, forcing many Americans indoors. Wildfire smoke causes respiratory illnesses, and people who are frequently exposed to wildfire smoke may have higher risks of developing dementia later in life. Global warming–fueled “heat domes” brought scorching temperatures to much of the country for days on end in 2023. The searing heat of 2023 caused discomfort and dangerous conditions for millions, especially for outdoor laborers, the urban poor, and others living in substandard housing. Nighttime temperatures also remained stubbornly high; according to the 2018 National Climate Assessment, nights are warming faster than days. High nighttime temperatures magnify the dangers of heatwaves, placing a “particularly heavy burden on the body, raising the risk of heat illness and death.”

Millions of Americans are living with often unacknowledged and poorly understood emotional and economic anxieties, physical discomfort, and health problems driven by global warming. What are the effects of climate destabilization on American society? Is global warming a “threat multiplier” here at home? Research has shown that violent crime and online hate speech soar during heatwaves. According to a study in The Lancet, “Online hate speech on Twitter was 22% higher in extreme heat with temperatures between 107 and 113 degrees Fahrenheit.” The researchers found that online hate speech increased significantly at both the city and state level regardless of climate zone, income levels, and religious and political beliefs. During the summer of 2023, Phoenix had fifty-four days of temperatures above 110 degrees including a thirty-one-day streak of temperatures at or above 110 degrees. The NOAA weather forecast app turned red for cities in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi as temperatures soared above 107 degrees. Some midwestern cities sweated through heat indices well above 107 degrees; in late August, the heat index was 134 degrees in Lawrence, Kansas. According to the Anti-Defamation League, “Online hate and harassment surged in the 2023 findings... a third of American adults (33%) experienced some form of online harassment in the past twelve months, up from 23% in 2022.”

What happens when the seasons no longer match our memories of seasons past? During the summer of 2023, scorching temperatures made visits to some of our national parks almost impossible. The mercury hit 109 degrees twice in Moab, Utah, gateway to the popular Arches National Park; Death Valley shattered global records with a nighttime temperature of 120 degrees. Toxic algal blooms closed beaches all over the country and as far north as Wisconsin, Vermont, and the Pacific Northwest. Ocean waters off the coast of Florida felt like a hot tub, 101 degrees. Coral reefs bleached, and many species of fish—including freshwater fish in overheated inland lakes, rivers, and streams—sought relief in deeper, cooler waters.

In our warming world, Climate Central warns, “anglers will struggle to plan fishing trips that connect with fish that are biting.” When you can’t spend summer vacation exploring our national parks without risking heat exhaustion, and you can’t count on a successful summer fishing trip or a relaxing day at the beach, playing in the cooling waves, what do you do? When the earth beneath your feet literally is changing in disconcerting and often dangerous ways, who do you blame? Who do you look to for leadership, sympathy, or solace? Could finding allies across the political spectrum within the environmental movement build the momentum for bipartisanship more broadly throughout society? Could a shared commitment to protecting our natural heritage revitalize Americans’ commitment to defending our democratic heritage? Could it be that “Conserving the country’s natural resources—land, air and water—is patriotic”?