Help me be a single issue voter

February 20, 2019 9:32 AM

Where can someone who is relatively unfamiliar with environmental policy go to understand Democratic primary candidates' history and proposals on climate issues?

I feel like a lot of the coverage I've read leaves environmentalism too far to the side, but it's important to me. I'd love to read more - in-depth analysis of different types of policy proposals, head-to-head comparisons, whatever, as long as it's reliable. Ultimately I'm interested both in candidates' policies and the likelihood of their ability to actually pass them.

Assume I have a pretty good grasp of economics but a much shallower knowledge of environmental science.

posted by mosst to Law & Government (4 answers total)

Response by poster: I meant to say also - I'm not just interested in thinkpieces or whatever, also in books that can help me build my understanding of the fundamental concepts in play or whatever else you'd recommend. I'm okay making this a pretty deep dive.
posted by mosst at 9:38 AM on February 20, 2019

Grist is a good place to start. David Roberts at Vox (previously of Grist) is a good reporter on that beat.
posted by General Malaise at 11:01 AM on February 20, 2019

A while back, a site called votesmart used to be a beginning point for me on tracking how elected people voted on legislation related to issues. I used it via desktop. It’s still around, but I can’t assess it easily via my smartphone.
posted by childofTethys at 12:23 PM on February 20, 2019

Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis from the U.N. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment describes the benefits that ecosystems provide to human beings, and how human activity affects ecosystems. It's wide ranging and detailed. Global Environment Outlook 6, just released by unenvironment.org, is more up to date. They are free for download.
posted by euphotic at 11:40 PM on March 16, 2019