Dear NRDC Action Fund Supporter,

California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, and other western states are experiencing a climate emergency.

That's what the record high temps, raging wildfires, evacuated communities, power outages, and orange and blood-red skies from the smoke and pollution blanketing our communities are telling us.

I and millions of people in the West are reminded of this crisis every morning when we wake up, dangerously breathing in the acrid smoke, ash, and soot falling from the sky.

My heart breaks for all the loss and all the pain so many communities are experiencing, first from the COVID-19 pandemic, and now from this climate change-induced catastrophe that has scorched millions of acres of land across the West this summer. Like too many across the West, members of my family have been evacuated from homes in California and Oregon and confined inside due to smoke and pollution in Washington.

And we're not the only ones — communities in the Southeast and Midwest are being devastated by storms and other extreme weather, and across the country, cities and towns are suffering from the worsening impacts of climate change.

This crisis isn't a wake-up call. You and I are wide awake to the ongoing damage done by climate change. But if this isn't a call to action, what is?

It's a call for all of us to use the power of our vote this November to speak up for climate action and show politicians who ignore the climate crisis and prioritize polluters over people's health that their time in office is over ... for good.

We desperately need a president and vice president who understand the urgency and seriousness of climate change and have concrete plans for action. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are those leaders.

So while priority number one in this crisis is to make sure our family, friends, and neighbors across the West stay safe, our next priority must be to make sure all of us are registered to vote, and then to vote for leaders up and down the ballot who will tackle climate change head on.

So please use the NRDC Action Fund's Voter Ready tool to make sure you're registered to vote. It's fast and easy to use.

Once you check your registration, make sure you request your mail-in ballot right away (if you live in New Jersey, Hawaii, Vermont, Utah, or Washington, D.C., you will receive a mail-in ballot automatically; you don't need to request one).

When you receive your ballot, fill it out and either mail it back or drop it off at your county elections office as soon as you can.

These unrelenting temperatures and smoky conditions are having a real impact on people's health, but climate change effects do not impact everyone equally. Low-income people, people of color, and essential workers, many of whom work outdoors, are most vulnerable to the high temperatures and dangerously polluted air.

Read more about how the health risks of searing heat and wildfires are growing, and how climate change is making things worse.

President Trump continues to ignore science and only reluctantly acknowledged the fires' impacts. His willful ignorance about climate change and his all-out push to gut environmental protections and clean energy initiatives continue to harm so many, especially people of color.

But our votes can put a stop to that. Joe Biden's climate plan is the most aggressive, comprehensive, and equitable roadmap ever released by any administration in our nation's history. It will:

• Zero out carbon emissions from power plants by 2035
• Put millions of people back to work in clean energy, including by investing $400 billion in electric vehicles
• Direct 40 percent of climate spending to rural and urban low-income areas and Black, Indigenous, and communities of color to create clean energy jobs
• Restore enforcement of environmental laws that keep our air and water clean, and restore the role of science in decision-making
• Stay in the Paris climate agreement to get global climate action back on track
• Put the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska off limits to oil companies
• Cease issuing new offshore oil and gas drilling permits
• Invest in energy efficiency upgrades in old buildings and upgrade public transit across the nation

With your help, the NRDC Action Fund and our sister organization, NRDC, are fighting back against Trump's anti-environment rollbacks and working to enact critical climate and clean energy progress in cities and states throughout the West. And NRDC's lawyers are using the courts — very effectively — to slow or stop these assaults.

But to elect the leaders who take climate change as seriously as you and I do, we all need to vote in this year's election.

So, take the first step: Use the NRDC Action Fund's Voter Ready tool to make sure you are registered to vote.

Stay safe and healthy as we ride out this tough fall together.

Thank you,


Annie Notthoff
Senior Western Advocacy Director, NRDC Action Fund

Photo: Kyodo via AP Images