Americans will elect our 47th president this November as the nation reels from historic hurricanes, wildfires and drought conditions. Despite the severity of these events and warnings from environmental experts, the Republican and Democratic campaigns have remained noticeably quiet on the topic of climate change.

The recent presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump saw less conversation on environmental issues than those between Joe Biden and Trump. This year, fewer voters cite climate as their top issue compared to voters four years ago.

This shift in focus is not a reaction to concrete plans for a greener future – 2023 saw record crude oil production. Rather, it is the growth of a worrying myth: clean energy initiatives and strong economic policies are mutually exclusive.

To treat the environmental crisis with the urgency it deserves, Democratic politicians must bring climate change back to the forefront of national conversation.

Harris and Trump’s climate platforms are vastly different.

Under Trump, the government rolled back many climate protection policies, including pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords, according to Michael Ross, a professor in the political science department and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. In contrast, the Biden-Harris administration proposed and signed the multibillion-dollar Inflation Reduction Act, which contains extensive green energy provisions.

“The Inflation Reduction Act is not just the most important climate legislation in U.S. history. It’s one of the most important pieces of climate legislation anywhere in the world to date,” Ross said. “It was a major step forward in addressing climate emissions.”

Despite the historic nature of the IRA, the Harris campaign seems hesitant to embrace the label of environmental advocacy. Three-quarters of Americans say they have heard little or nothing about the IRA’s expansion of tax credits for companies manufacturing green energy technology.

Even the law’s name attempts to hide its climate provisions behind its economic ones, perpetuating the notion that climate action and economic growth cannot coexist.

This political strategy is likely a response to bipartisan concern about the U.S. economy. Eighty-one percent of Americans say the economy is very important to their vote in the 2024 election.

“I see slight problems in the fact that the Democrats and Kamala Harris haven’t necessarily taken a super strong stance on climate change,” said Lauren Pelot, a second-year political science student minoring in environmental systems and society. “However, I do understand the politics of it and why that is necessary in order for them to win.”

While making political concessions is nothing new in politics, the Democrats’ continued treatment of climate change as negotiable sets a dangerous precedent.

“It should be surprising to more people that what’s arguably the most important political issue on the planet is almost never discussed by either of the major candidates,” Ross said. “Not only is it ignored by Trump, who usually dismisses the science and the reality of climate change altogether, but also by Harris, who’s part of the administration that’s had this major success in producing new legislation on climate.”

The overall electorate may be split on the urgency of climate change, but younger voters are clear in their concern for environmental justice. According to a Pew Research study, 59% of Americans aged 18-29 say addressing global climate change should be a top priority, while 38% of 30 to 49-year-olds say the same.

“I think we’ve witnessed the impact more so and it’s been embedded more so into our education,” said first-year public health student Jocelyn Hebish. “Whereas maybe 20 or 30 years ago when the impacts of climate change weren’t as noticeable, there wasn’t as much of a need to educate the upcoming generations.”

One area in which the Harris administration has especially disappointed environmental activists is her support of fracking, a method used in extracting oil and gas from rock formations. While Harris expressed her support for a fracking ban in the 2020 Democratic primary race, she has reversed course in this campaign.

Scientists warn that fracking is linked to water contamination, the release of greenhouse gases and earthquakes. It can also be damaging to the health of nearby communities: A 2022 study found a two-to-three times increased risk of leukemia in children who lived near fracking sites.

“It is critical for her to win the state of Pennsylvania, where fracking is very popular and a big source of revenues,” Ross said. “So it doesn’t surprise me that she’s reversed her position on this.”

Harris’ newfound support of fracking may be a political necessity, but her previous comments on fracking demonstrate she once understood the long-term dangers of the industry. Failing to be upfront about the future of fracking hurts not only the planet but also workers and communities that rely on these industries.

Ultimately, it is irresponsible and perilous for Democrats to adopt such near-sighted climate positions.

This normalization of climate apathy also has trickle-down effects. States and corporations are failing to meet their sustainability plans with little to no consequences. The UC system, for example, lagged far behind its self-proclaimed goal of carbon neutrality by 2025 and later switched to a pledge to decarbonize by 2045.

“California is at a position where they have the opportunity to kind of lead the rest of the nation, and then the nation leading the rest of the world in climate policies,” Pelot said. “One because we have such a thriving economy, and two because we’re a more liberal area, and we have all these natural resources that we need to protect.”

Democrats should emphasize that Trump’s plan to disempower the Environmental Protection Agency would threaten to undermine even state-level environmental efforts. The dismantling of the EPA is a cornerstone of Project 2025, the recent policy manifesto released by the Heritage Foundation, a far-right think tank with ties to top Trump administration officials.

“If Donald Trump wins, obviously he’s a Republican, and a lot of his policies are focused at big businesses and helping them out,” Pelot said. “That is in itself counterintuitive to fixing climate change because a lot of the problems of climate change are caused by these big corporations.”

Democrats’ continual placing of climate change on the backburner disguises the fact that they do espouse dramatically different environmental values than Republicans.

Environmentally conscious voters should let each candidate’s published climate plans on their campaign websites speak for themselves.

The upcoming election will be pivotal for U.S. environmental policy.

Regardless of the outcome, the Democratic Party should reassess its stance on climate this election season. Now is the moment for openly prioritizing climate – there really is no time to waste.