This month, the national major-party candidates gathered for four debates — three featuring President Obama and Mitt Romney, one featuring Vice President Biden and Paul Ryan — that spanned over six hours. Tally up the transcripts, and you’ll find that roughly 70,000 words were uttered by the candidates and the moderators.
But the words “climate change” and “global warming” were not among them. The painful irony is that as the climate crisis grows more serious, the issue is generating less discussion, not more — 2012 is the first campaign cycle since 1984 in which the issue wasn’t raised at all during the national debates.
CNN’s Candy Crowley conceded last week that she realized “you climate change people” hoped to hear at least one question on the crisis, but she decided against it.
The candidates, of course, have little control over the issues included in the debates, but I found it noteworthy that President Obama is mindful of environmentalists’ concerns, and has reminded them that he hasn’t forgotten about climate change, even if the issue is getting the short shrift:
An email sent to environmentalists Sunday evening, obtained by The Hill, tallies numerous instances of Obama talking about climate change on the stump.









