Here at Sierra, we sometimes receive letters and emails from readers who wish we would "avoid politics" and focus solely on nature and the environment. I can understand where these Sierra Club members are coming from. Wouldn't it be awesome if basic environmental protections—clean air and water, a stable climate, the defense of wilderness and wildlife, and universal access to outdoor recreation—were uncontroversial and could be left outside the partisan scrum? But that's not the case.

Environmentalism has been a political issue ever since the Sierra Club unsuccessfully battled the California political and economic establishments a century ago to prevent the construction of a dam in Yosemite National Park. Politics is a contest over competing ideas about the common good—it's innate to a social species like ours—so it naturally involves sometimes-messy conflict. Take, as just one example, debates over fossil fuel extraction and the protection of wildlife. For some people, the highest good is defending wildlife and its habitats; for others, the highest good is the production of cheap energy, regardless of the risks to wildlife or the climate. Such a dispute can be settled only via public debate, through administrative rule-making and legal action, and by legislatures writing laws—which is to say, in the realm of politics.

In short: Protecting the environment requires engaging in the art of politics and the craft of self-governance. Political engagement only works, however, if we have a fully functioning democracy. Tragically, we don't. As we report throughout this issue, our democratic institutions and norms are being weakened by blatant partisan gerrymandering, laws that make it more difficult for some citizens to vote, and outright voter suppression. Senior editor Paul Rauber sums up the situation when he writes, "In this election year, two vast systems upon which we rely are unraveling: the climate and our democracy." Since a healthy environment depends on a healthy democracy, attacks on our democratic norms are also unavoidably environmental issues.

Addressing this crisis of democracy will require an ideal of political biodiversity that values a suite of civic-engagement strategies. At the very least, people must register to vote and then get to the polls to elect environmental advocates and defenders of democratic values, as executive director Michael Brune urges ("Last Best Chance"). Science editor Heather Smith argues in "Small Is Beautiful," that we shouldn't just focus on the bright, shiny object of the White House: One can also be an active citizen by engaging in city politics, advocating for pro-environment ballot measures, holding elected leaders accountable to the wishes of their constituents, and championing local environmental protections.

"Politics" isn't a dirty word; it is, rather, humans' best way of navigating the currents of contested ideas, collaboration, and compromise. Of course, politics can't work without the people's participation and passion. It's essential that each of us act in whatever way we can—whether that means holding a banner at a protest, contacting elected officials, knocking on doors for candidates, or simply showing up to vote. If we're going to succeed in protecting the planet and all of its inhabitants—human and more-than-human alike—we must commit to becoming public citizens and to remembering that politics is simply part of life on Earth.

This article appeared in the May/June 2020 edition with the headline "The Political Environment."