It Might Be Time To Find a New Way to Talk About Climate [Video]

Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk has made addressing climate change a central priority of his time running Pennsylvania’s third-most populous city. He ran for office in 2021 promising to align all city budgets with sustainability goals and since taking office the following year he has pursued a range of climate initiatives including decarbonizing the city’s transportation sector.

But when he found himself at the center of the U.S. political scene this fall, as both presidential campaigns homed in on Pennsylvania as a key swing state, climate change didn’t come up at all. “I talk to the [Harris] campaign all the time about messaging to Latinos,” he told me before the election. “We haven’t talked at all about climate. It just doesn’t fit into the equation.”

Indeed, by all accounts, climate change was an afterthought on the campaign trail. As a candidate, President-elect Donald Trump mostly ignored it. When climate change came …