Here Is the First Explicit Question on Climate Change of the Primary Season
[There was a video here]
Tonight’s Democratic debate featured the first explicit question on climate change (from a moderator) of the primary season, despite the fact that last year was the warmest in the United States on record. This winter has also been the warmest on record.
The question came at the behest of 21 Florida mayors, both Democratic and Republican, who wrote a letter to the hosts of both parties’ debates Florida debates.
“This is a critically important issue not just for the country but also for the world, but it isn’t even being debated,” one of the signatories, Mayor Jack Seiler of Fort Lauderdale, told the Guardian. “Some of the topics raised in the debates are ridiculous—the personal attacks go back and forth for 20 minutes—but when you try to talk about about rising sea levels, it’s almost as if it’s too much of a mature topic for them.
“Our city is really ground zero for rising sea levels, so it’s frustrating to see this. I mean, I’d love there to be as much discussion about climate change as there is about Donald Trump’s hands. If they aren’t going to talk about it in Florida, when will they?”
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have addressed the issue tangentially, but never directly—likely because any honest answer requires acknowledging that sacrifices will have to be made—while the Republicans (excepting the apostate John Kasich) deny that climate change exists at all.
