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TLDR: INI/Membership is here.

Today we’re launching the first way for INI readers and listeners to come together, to go deeper, and to unlock a place where you can gain wisdom and organize to make concrete progress towards a cleaner, more equitable world — for everyone.

And just in time.

Here’s what won’t change: The newsletter and podcast will remain free, forever. 

Even better: Memberships will not only make sure the newsletter and podcast remain free for everyone across the world, but will also support INI’s growing business along the way. 

Members on the annual plan can apply to our new Community, and every Member will benefit from:

Join now to solve problems with other Shit Givers on the frontlines of the future, to support our work, and to improve your decision making for company and family.

Link to join: https://newsletter.importantnotimportant.com/upgrade

Got questions? Email us at [email protected].

Over the past few years, more and more voters have cited “action on climate” as a reason for voting the way they do.

From Data for Progress, in October:

• Over two-thirds of voters (68 percent), agree that the U.S. should lead the world in addressing climate change so other countries will follow suit.

From November:

• Roughly two-thirds of voters (64 percent) think that the U.S. should invest in cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable energy sources rather than ramp up fossil fuel production and continue relying on foreign energy exports

From March:

• When asked about changes to infrastructure in light of the IPCC report, an overwhelming majority (81 percent) of voters, said they would support government investments to increase the climate resilience of our buildings, roads, bridges, and other structures

But here’s the thing, and I think you know this, and it might even be you: lots – lots – of voters who are registered, and even those who do vote in presidential elections – don’t turn out for midterms.

Much less for state and local races.

Even registered voters who list the environment or climate as their most important issue do the same. Millions of them don’t turn out.

Success might not actually be about identifying and focusing on one specific issue, campaign, or candidate. It might come down to how we want to see ourselves, why we wear those little “I Voted” stickers, how we identify, and our behaviors.

And that’s what the Environmental Voter Project is all about.

My guest today is Nathaniel Stinnett.

Nathaniel founded the Environmental Voter Project in 2015 after over a decade of experience as a senior advisor, consultant, and trainer for political campaigns and issue-advocacy nonprofits. 

Hailed as a "visionary" by The New York Times, and dubbed "The Voting Guru" by Grist magazine, Stinnett is a frequent expert speaker on cutting-edge campaign techniques and the behavioral science behind getting people to vote. 

Nathaniel has held a variety of senior leadership and campaign manager positions on U.S. Senate, Congressional, state, and mayoral campaigns, and he sits on the Board of Advisors for MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative. 

And he’s here to help me understand the EVP’s mission and tactics, and how we can help them achieve their goal of turning out more climate-focused voters this year and in the years to come.

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A little while ago, I had a conversation with Dr. Madhukar Pai about vaccine equity.

In it, I tried to understand why and how developed countries were spending billions on COVID vaccine boosters, but so relatively little in low-income countries.

Not to say that nothing has been done, but it’s a pretty clear-cut case where whatever we have done, however complex the system, it’s nowhere near enough.

I can’t be more clear here. This will affect you.

We’re handing out 21 million shots a day across the world, and yet, 36.8% of the world’s population – 2.9 billion people – still haven’t received a single shot.

87% of people in low-income countries still haven’t received a single shot.

The international organization that was supposed to shepherd this whole endeavor to vaccinate the world, COVAX, has, however you squeeze it, failed.

I want to understand technically what the issues have been, but also as always, to understand why we do what we do when it’s so morally corrupt, when it costs so many lives, and even when all of the evidence tells us that it will come back to bite us.

My guest today is Gayle Smith.

Gayle served until recently as Coordinator for Global COVID Response and Health Security at the Department of State and has recently returned to her role as the President and CEO of the ONE Campaign.

Prior to the ONE Campaign, Smith was the Administrator of USAID, where she led a staff of more than 10,000 people working to end extreme poverty, foster sustained and inclusive economic growth, and promote resilient, democratic societies all over the world. 

Smith has also served as Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for Development and Democracy at the National Security Council, where she helped lead the U.S. and global response to the Ebola crisis in 2014 and 2015, and as Special Assistant to President Clinton and Senior Director for African affairs at the National Security Council.

If anyone can help me understand where the US, in particular, has fallen short of helping to vaccinate the world and get us out of this thing, it’s Gayle.

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• Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

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There’s no word for “conservation” in many Indigenous languages.

Some come close, but mean something more like “taking care of” or “looking after.”

And that’s probably because the very idea of conservation, to “prevention the wasteful use of a resource”, would have been, and continue to be, foreign to many of North America’s Indigenous peoples, who lived in an entirely different, co-dependent relationship with nature.

That is to say, to have had a relationship at all.

A relationship with the very same nature of which we’re inextricably part of, of which we rely on for clean air, food, and water – or it’s game over.

And now, if we’re not facing game over, we’re certainly up against the final boss.

We live on stolen lands that were tended for thousands of years by Indigenous and Native peoples have been dried out by mostly white settlers in what seems like the blink of an eye.

Land now covered in cities, in suburbs, in industrialized agriculture, desperately and even controversially conserved as national and state parks.

Waters onshore and offshore, full of plastic and fertilizer, once bountiful, now overfished.

The receipts are in and it’s not gone well for colonialists’ stewardship over the single habitable ecosystem as far as anyone can tell.

New voices are needed, new policies and practices are needed, and perhaps the most compelling ones come from our land’s longest-tenured human inhabitants.

And while, yes, I’m focused on actions we can take to build a vastly cleaner and better future for all people, you know I work hard to bring you the necessary context, to understand how we got here, why we got here, to understand the decisions and systems involved – all of which should only make us more effective at taking action.

My guest today is Dr. Jessica Hernandez.

Dr. Hernandez is an environmental scientist, founder of environmental non-profit Piña Soul, and the author of the new book, “Fresh Banana Leaves”, where she weaves together her family’s relationship with nature, as part of nature, her family’s history of being displaced over and over, through the lens of eco-colonialism, and how Indigenous-led restoration is the way forward.

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