For Black voters, climate action means little without relief from rising costs

This story was originally published by Capital B and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.​ For Elijah Lee, protecting the environment has always been about what’s happening close to home. He grew up in a predominantly Black, low-income community in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, and went to school next to a paper mill that filled the air with pollution. He always wondered why it seemed like the only employment option for people in town.  Now, as data centers expand in Virginia, where he moved as a teenager, he fears the political promises of data center-driven economic growth won’t reach him or his generation.  At 18, Lee is preparing to vote in his first midterm election. Climate policy ranks among his top concerns. But he understands why people struggling to pay their bills might not put it first. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Here's How “It’s hard to care about the quality of your air or your food that you eat and whether or not that food is actually clean when you can’t even afford the food in the first place,” he said. New polling suggests that tension is widespread. Black voters may not name climate change as their biggest election concern, but they still want leaders to address it.  Read Next Trump ordered to release billions in climate grants meant for Black communities Adam Mahoney, Capital B In a seven-state survey conducted , only 9 percent of Black registered voters ranked climate change among their top three issues motivating them to vote, compared with 74 percent who selected the cost of living.  At the same time, most respondents said they wanted climate policy to be a top issue for their elected officials. Even among Black Republicans, 79 percent said it was important for candidates to prioritize addressing climate change. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Here's How Interviews with voters and advocates suggest the gap is not simply a messaging issue, but also about whether voters connection between environmental policy and their immediate needs. Increasingly, it is also a question if voters should even prioritize climate positions when voting because they cannot trust elected officials to deliver lower bills, cleaner water, and protection from corporate pollution. “Young people today want to ensure we have a future where we can live prosperously,” Lee said. “We understand that the future requires environmental protections.