Much has been said about the failures of Democrats, progressives, and other people concerned about the environment to engage the general public in the seriousness of the issues affecting our air, water, and climate--or at least to take these concerns to the ballot box.
A friend recently sent me a link to a website that I think could be used as a potent organizing tool for Democrats around the country. It is called Scorecard, and it has a simple search vehicle you can use to enter your local zip code, and determine who the big polluters are in your county, the quantity of their annual emissions, and whether those emissions contain carcinogenic components.
Middle of the road people may not want to be defined as environmentalists, but the discovery that you live in an area where tons of cancer causing agents are annually poured into the air has a way of getting people's attention. Chances are good that many of those counties on the list of the dirtiest ones in the US are swing counties that could go either red or blue with the right issue, correctly framed.
Democrats could take the high road by seeking solutions that both meet the need of the business to do its work, and the community's need for an environmentally clean place to live and visit. Of course, we need to do this stuff because it's the right thing to do, not just because we are Democrats.
I used to live in a small town, coincidentally, a swing district, where I suspected the air quality was very bad. The town was located in a valley and surrounded by bluffs on all sides. Air pollution was caused by lots of weekend traffic, a burning dump in the middle of town, numerous campsites with lots of campfires, and a local corn drying facility. I asked if the state pollution agency could monitor our air quality, and they offered no help. With no monitoring equipment, I couldn't find out whether my intuitions about the poor air quality were correct. Now, I recently learned about an engineer named Denny Larson, who has created a low-cost bucket system that makes air quality monitoring affordable. You can learn more about his system at Global Community Monitor.
If all politics is really local, localizing these pollution issues may be a way of driving home the importance of electing candidates who will protect the environment. Anyway, I'm just thinking aloud here. This is my first diary, and I'm sure there are plenty of others who know more about this than I do.