Friday, March 29, 2024

Comentarios from Maria: Majority of Latinos want solutions to Climate Change

Maria-CNN-HeadshotWhen the topic of the Latino vote comes up in conversation, many in Washington are quick to jump to conclusions and say that Latinos only care about immigration and the economy.

And although these are really important issues to us, Latinos tend not to be very different than the rest of our brothers and sisters living in the country.

One of those issues, which has been building up momentum in recent years, is the subject of the environment and climate change.

My priority has always been to protect my children, and while I think of their future, I think about the work I do with Voces Verdes.

Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to participate in a conference call where Voces Verdes together with Latino Decisions, the respected Latino polling opinion company, announced the results of a national survey that interviewed 800 Latinos in the country between November 27th and December 3rd , 2013.

The Latino Decisions survey displayed heavy support from our community for the environment along with taking action to combat climate change and to find reasons why climate change is occurring. Compared to other national surveys on political attitudes, Latino Decisions has only seen this level of intensity around the DREAM Act.

According to the Latino Decisions survey, the vast majority of Latinos in the United States want to see some kind of government action to reduce the threat of climate change.

In addition, the new poll shows the support towards some action against climate change among Latinos is wide and deep.

The following examples show the importance of what these numbers mean:

– Nationally, 9 out of 10 Latinos want the government to take action against the danger of global warming and climate change.

– Nationally, 8 out of 10 Latinos want President Obama to work towards reducing the carbon pollution that causes climate change.

– Nationally, 86% of Latinos support regulating the carbon pollution that causes climate change.

– 91% of Latinos whose income is less than $20,000 annually say it is important for our government to take action against global warming and climate change. 86 % of those with incomes over $80,000 agree with this view, as well.

The truth is that the fight against climate change is a priority for most Latinos across the country.

This in large part is thanks to the amount of data that is available and shows that the future of our children and grandchildren will be impacted by climate change.

Democrats understand this, and President Obama himself has put his plan in front of the American people. All that is missing, as always, are Republicans to put their two cents in and join the cause to find solutions to this problem.

 

This piece originally appeared in Spanish in the Washington Hispanic