Latino environmental group launches climate campaign

A prominent Latino environmental group is releasing a series of bilingual ads on Monday highlighting climate change as an issue that disproportionately affects Hispanics.

Climate Power en Acción will spend $5 million on video ads, billboards, search ads, a new website, as well as radio and a video series in collaboration with the Spanish-language newspaper El Tiempo Latino.

“For Latinos, the climate crisis is not abstract; it is affecting them now and more severely than most Americans,” said Antonieta Cádiz, deputy executive director of Climate Power En Acción.

“These educational ads make it clear that climate action equals economic prosperity for Latinos. The ads show what the Biden administration has done to combat not only the climate crisis, but also to improve the health and economic well-being of Latinos and all Americans.”

A UnidosUS survey of Hispanic votersNovember found that just 6% of Latinos believe climate change isn’t real, compared to about 15% of the general population, according to a studyFebruary Research Paperfrom the University of Michigan.

According to the UnidosUs poll, 48 percent of Latino voters said climate change is a serious problem, although only 9 percent listed it as an important issue for authorities to address.

Historically, environmental issues have polled well among Latinos, in large part because many Hispanic population centers tend to be near heavily polluted areas or in places threatened by extreme weather.

The bilingual campaign also adds an economic element to the issue, with ads promoting the creation of green energy jobs.

One example of a billboard in Spanish goes after Big Oil, blaming “oil billionaires” for high gas prices – “they win, you pay,” the billboard says.

In this month’s radio segments, the campaign will also highlight the dangers of extreme heat.

The campaign’s primary target audience is Hispanic men ages 18 to 34 and Latino men under age 50 in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Other ads will also run in states like Wisconsin and Michigan.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story