Young people turned out big to vote against Trump. Will climate get them to show up for the midterms?

Students from Alliance Leichtman-Levine Environmental Science High School rally for climate action in downtown Los Angeles in September 2021. In a letter to lawmakers over the weekend, a coalition of young activists — including the executive director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement — told members of Congress to “pass this bill, but don’t pat yourselves on the back.” The group called it “a start” that is worth supporting but “still less than what our generation deserves.” Young voters “have proven to be incredibly pragmatic,” said John Della Volpe, who leads a biannual poll of young Americans at the Harvard Institute of Politics and worked for Biden in 2020. The Supreme Court’s landmark decision stripping away abortion protections, which is especially unpopular among younger Americans; the bipartisan gun safety bill Biden signed into law in June; and the long-awaited climate investments are all likely to “further mobilize an already tuned in generation of young voters,” Della Volpe said. At a minimum, the new bill is likely to prevent young Democratic voters from turning away from the party out of frustration over climate inaction, said Anthony Leiserowitz, a professor at Yale University who directs the school’s Program on Climate Change Communication. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York says he still wants to go further, telling the Washington Post, “If we win, we’re going to have to do a reconciliation bill that will take care of a lot of the things that we couldn’t do.” The Democrats are set to pass the bill just as the U.S. enters the most dangerous extreme weather period of the year, which is almost certain to produce wildfires, hurricanes and heat waves, all of which have become more common because of climate change.