The smell of spring’s first flowers blossoming, the sight of a tree-covered mountain, the sound of birdsong: These are things we all enjoy. So why does the preservation of nature sometimes seem like an issue that’s split down party lines?
According to Benji Backer, it’s a matter of disconnection — or rather, disconnection from the outside world and hyperconnection to the worlds within our devices. “We’ve become so digitally addicted, and we’ve allowed every issue to become a culture war issue, largely because of the algorithms and the news incentives,” he told Nice News, adding: “And the reality is the environment is more important than that.”
Backer is the founder and CEO of Nature is Nonpartisan, a nonprofit on a mission “to rebuild a durable conservation movement for the 21st century,” he said. “And that movement should include political diversity, should include geographic diversity, income diversity, racial diversity.”
A Wisconsin native and the author of 2024’s The Conservative Environmentalist, the 28-year-old created a right-leaning conservation group while in college. But he soon realized that, while there were also left-leaning groups, there was no forward-thinking environmental advocacy organization that represented the vast majority of Americans who agree on nature-related causes.
That common ground comprises what he calls “90-10 issues”: things like public lands, clean water, clean air, restoring forests, preventing megafires, a diverse energy mix, support for wildlife corridors, and a new Civilian Conservation Corps.
“There’s really not much that’s super polarizing on the environment outside of specific words and climate change,” he pointed out. He hopes that “over time we can build the bridge to climate change too, because the climate is changing and we need to do something about it. We just need to figure out a way to depolarize the entire environmental conversation first to build that trust.”
In its pursuit of a depoliticized conservation landscape, Nature is Nonpartisan is continuing to launch a number of creative campaigns. One of them is called Going Public, and it’s essentially a satirical Wall Street “sell-off” of America’s public lands, in which people can unofficially take a share (for free) and receive a certificate in the mail that shows they’re a “proud public landowner.”
The organization is also focused on policy, helping launch a bipartisan caucus in the Senate called the Stewardship Caucus. And on the Nature is Nonpartisan homepage, visitors are asked to sign a pledge to join the group in “calling on elected leaders to prioritize common-sense environmental solutions, not partisan politics.”
Other engagement initiatives include concerts and YouTube shows. Creating a modern movement, Backer suggests, requires employing the very thing that drives us away from the outdoors to bring us back to it together.
“The 21st century of environmentalism, we believe, is going to be inherently different. We have different technologies, digital platforms, and it’s ever-changing. And it has to be super creative and unique if we’re going to adapt to the times,” he said, adding: “We’re trying to make it interesting to be a part of the conservation movement again.”
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