This post was produced with support from Clean Air Moms Action. All opinions are, of course, my own.
Last month at a blogging event for moms I met a representative for Clean Air Moms Action. I really enjoyed talking to her about the issues our country faces. Not the loud and attention-getting scandals, but the policy issues that feel completely ignored this year.
My dad was a lawyer and my mom was a medical professional, but we still lived closer to the land than most. Like many Americans used to, we were still growing some of our own food into the 80s. My mom has quite a green thumb, and was using organic gardening techniques since the 1970s. She literally subscribed to Organic Gardener magazine. That was a thing!
My uncles were agronomists and environmental engineers, where there grandfathers had taught school or run a shop while also tending kitchen gardens after the regular workday was over. We still stay close to the earth, even if it’s from an office or a lab.
I think that something we lack now in general is that closeness to the outdoors that keeps us in tune with the water, land, and air. We watch the seasons change through windows and windshields. We are disconnecting from the reality of how we are using up and polluting the environment.
As moms we care deeply about protecting the health of our children and grandchildren. It’s our job to stand up for our children. Harmful pollution, climate change and toxic chemicals are putting our children at risk. I don’t think it has to be this way.
Election day is coming up very soon, and your vote can elect candidates who care about these issues. Please vote as if your child’s health depends on it. Because it does. Here’s why:
CLEAN AIR
Air pollution from fossil fuels leads to bad air quality in too many communities. Increases in smog can trigger asthma attacks and make other chronic health problems worse. Are you letting your child’s health be voted away to protect the profits of companies that pollute? Stop it! Instead, VOTE to protect little lungs from toxic air pollution.
CLIMATE CHANGE
The same harmful pollution that is making our children sick is causing rising temperatures and extreme weather events. This is not opinion, this is scientific fact agreed upon by the preponderance of scientific evidence. Our changing climate makes smog worse. It increases respiratory health threats, particularly for people with allergies and asthma. Also, intense heat waves exacerbate heart and lung conditions. VOTE for candidates who support proposals to cut methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. And vote to put our country on a clean energy path while at the same time protecting American jobs!
TOXIC CHEMICALS
Dangerous chemicals are found in our daily lives. They often enter our homes and bodies without our realizing it. In fact, these chemicals may not even have been disclosed, identified or studied. Thousands of toxic chemicals found in everyday products are linked to potential reproductive and developmental toxicity, endocrine disruption, birth defects, cancer, asthma, headaches and skin irritants. Children are among the most vulnerable to such chemicals.
I’ve been lucky to have children who don’t have breathing problems, but I have so many friends with kids who struggle to breathe from outdoor triggers.
No matter which party you are voting for, I think we all want a clean world for our kids and their kids. There are candidates on both sides of the aisle who actively protect our environment. All Americans can agree: harmful pollution needs to be reduced. Believe science or not, but climate change and toxic chemicals are putting our families at risk — and it doesn’t have to be that way!
This fall Clean Air Moms Action is traveling the country with a documentary film crew capturing the stories of parents who are fighting daily to protect their children’s health effects of exposure to oil and gas productions, high-tide flood waters, and ground water contamination from coal ash waste sites.
You can see more videos like this on the Clean Air Moms Action YouTube page
Please join me in working together to move clean energy forward in the US. by joining the fight to protect tiny lungs at cleanairmomsaction.org.
This month, your vote will tell leaders that you care about protecting little lungs from toxic air pollution. The same harmful pollution that is making our children sick is causing rising temperatures an extreme weather. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Join me by voting. Research candidates with a good record on the environment and vote for them. Because you love someone who needs a cleaner environment, snap a selfie and post it to social media with the hashtag #CleanAirMomsVote
See you at the polls!
Learn more on the Clean Air Moms Action website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Follow the hashtag #CleanAirMomsVote
