Celebrating Earth Month

Catch up on Nature Is Nonpartisan's Earth Month content

Nature Is Nonpartisan celebrated Earth Month by bringing people from all walks of life, cultural backgrounds, and political beliefs together around our shared love of nature. Thank you for joining us in this mission! Be sure to sign the pledge at NatureIsNonpartisan.org and follow us on social media — we will have exciting updates on ways you can take action very soon.

NINP x Builders

Nature Is Nonpartisan partnered with the Builders Movement this Earth Day to further our shared vision of overcoming toxic polarization and bringing people together around the environment.

Check out some of our collaborative work, including this video on the bipartisan history behind Earth Day and the following op-ed:

Is there any hope of a nonpartisan future for our planet?

By: Benji Backer

Every Earth Day, social media feeds are flooded with images of trees, beaches, mountains, and wildlife. For one day, everyone seems to agree that we love this planet's natural beauty.

It’s impactful to feel that sense of unity around something – even more so when we as a nation feel hopelessly divided in today’s political climate. Rarely do we see people of different cultural backgrounds, political beliefs, and socioeconomic statuses come together in agreement. It is much more common to see people arguing, name-calling, and screaming into their own echo chambers than making any proactive effort to reach a hand across the political aisle.

It has not always been this way. Bipartisan cooperation used to be the norm. Nature, especially, used to be entirely nonpartisan. The cornerstones of our federal government’s environmental efforts were created not in a way that was red or blue… it was simply green.

Take the first Earth Day, for example. On April 22, 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson, a Wisconsin Democrat, teamed up with Representative Pete McCloskey, a California Republican, to bring the nation’s attention to the environment. 20 million Americans rallied across the country that day to join the nonpartisan initiative. This kickstarted several years of bipartisan efforts to make conservation a key piece of our government’s duties, beginning with the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The overwhelming public demand for government action on the environment led President Richard Nixon to create the EPA just a few months after the first Earth Day. The EPA represented the bipartisan consensus on the need for organized government efforts to combat air pollution, ensure clean drinking water, and provide for the smart stewardship of the land we use to grow our food. President Nixon also established the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with the mission of researching our natural world to better understand how to best protect our natural resources.

During the EPA’s first few years, Congress passed several bipartisan bills that have proven to be critical in shaping America’s environmental initiatives. The Clean Air Act of 1970 completely redefined the government’s role in controlling air pollution by allowing for federal and state emission limits. In 1972, the Clean Water Act passed with impressive, passionate bipartisan support –substantial enough to even override a presidential veto. The Clean Water Act prevents the discharge of pollutants into America’s waterways. And in 1973, the Endangered Species Act, which provides for the protection of at-risk species and their habitats, received overwhelming bipartisan support, culminating in a unanimous “yea” vote in the U.S. Senate.

The nonpartisanship of nature continued throughout the 70's and 80’s, even amidst notable political division around the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. Almost eighty percent of Americans self-identified as environmentalists in 1991. But three decades later, only about forty percent of Americans say the same.

So what changed?

Political polarization deepened, special interests got louder, and misleading information became widespread – ultimately reshaping how Americans engaged with this issue.

In the 90s, lobbyists and corporations associated with the fossil fuel industry began running campaigns to confuse the public’s perception of the environmental movement. By 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that there would be no limit to the amount of money private corporations and donors could pour into elections in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. For better or for worse, this meant that American votes became a commodity over which various industries could fight. This only added to the already rapidly increasing polarization of the American political parties — and it created an unnecessary rift between economic prosperity and environmental protection.

Nowadays, it’s rare that we see bipartisan action on anything. Bills pass by razor-thin majorities and elections are won through months of fighting to win over the one or two percent of votes that are up for grabs. The lack of civil discourse has made us forget ourselves. Having built a career as a conservative environmental activist, I know common ground still exists. We just need to bring more attention to exposing it.

Two-thirds of Americans – Republicans and Democrats alike – think the government should do more to protect the environment. Ninety-five percent of voters say that protecting the water in our nation's lakes, streams, and rivers is important to them. Even our lawmakers are working across the aisle on this issue even if they don’t get much attention or applause for it. Caring for our wildlife, protecting our air and water from dangerous pollutants, building a future of cleaner energy, reducing the risk of natural disasters — these are things we can all rally behind, regardless of who we voted for in the last election.

This isn’t to say we must agree on every solution, or that there won’t be real meaningful disagreements. There will be. But the divisive and isolating nature of our political environment doesn’t even allow us to have the constructive conversations that lead to common ground. That’s the real problem.

This Earth Week, go ahead and share the pictures that remind us of why nature is worth protecting – let them inspire you. But we can’t stop there. We must challenge ourselves to step out of our echo chambers to have an uncomfortable conversation with someone who thinks differently than us. We must also hold our lawmakers accountable for doing the same.

We can all agree that our environmental future requires better than political gridlock. Nature used to be nonpartisan. And with the help of those who believe America is far better off when we work together, it will be again.

Benji Backer is the Founder and CEO of Nature Is Nonpartisan. He also serves as the Executive Chairman of the American Conservation Coalition, a Builders Movement partner, and is the best-selling author of “The Conservative Environmentalist: Common Sense Solutions for a Sustainable Future.”

Originally published by the Washington Examiner.

Nature in Action

Nature Is Nonpartisan is officially one month old — and our team isn’t wasting any time. Founder and CEO Benji Backer has been traveling all over the country speaking about the importance of sensible environmental action across party lines. Communications Director Amelia Joy and Chief Marketing Officer Meg Haywood-Sullivan have sat down with the media, including Real America’s Voice and Daily Yonder, to spread our message far and wide. And Chief of Staff Hattie Hobart joined a panel on bridging the partisan divide at the Planet Forward conference in Washington, D.C.

Rising Stars

Nature Is Nonpartisan was honored to receive the Rising Star Award during the Arizona Sustainability Leadership Awards! This award, associated with Arizona State University, recognizes emerging leaders creating new pathways in environmental communication and action.

Get Plugged In

Nature Is Nonpartisan has a lot of exciting announcements coming very soon, so make sure you’re following all of our social channels to get resources for education and activism. Remember, we don’t have to limit ourselves to celebrating our planet just one month out of the year. Let’s come together to share in our love of nature every day of our lives!