Tree Alerts (no url): “Climate and energy issues now rank in the top three issues mentioned in electoral ads as the midterm elections near in the US.”
“After nearly half a million people gathered last month in New York City for the People’s Climate March, political will on climate has seen a noticeable shift. Since then, questions on climate change have been popping up in debates around the US, information and misinformation has been incorporated into political commercials and polls across the country, and the popular political excuse of “I am not a scientist,” has become a punchline for backwards policies that are becoming a political liability in the parts of the country that are most vulnerable to climate impacts. As the US and other nations continue to work on policies to meaningfully address climate change, the upcoming elections will signal either that politicians have decided to heed calls for climate action or that they have chosen to ignore public opinion and will continue to remain behind the private sector when it comes to climate change.
Politicians who support anti-climate policies and projects like the Keystone XL pipeline are overwhelmingly supported by the fossil fuel industry.”
“Two brothers, Charles and David Koch have used their billions in profits from heavy polluting industries to fund more than 44,000 commercialsthis year in support of politicians who oppose clean air, renewable energy jobs and a transition away from harmful fossil fuels.
Politicians in the most vulnerable parts of the country to are taking heat for ignoring climate change as their cities and people are threatened by it. Denying the overwhelming scientific evidence of climate is no longer a politically safe strategy. Gov. Rick Scott in Florida has been taken to task for not addressing the issue by the mayor of Miami, whose city is directly threatened by sea-level rise. In Michigan, where the Great Lakes are threatened by a warming planet, climate has become an issue that has become beneficial to the candidate who wants to address climate change and a liability for the one ignoring it.
The phrase “I am not a scientist” has gone from excuse for ignoring climate science to punchline at the expense of those who use it. As Andrew A. Rosenberg the Union of Concerned Scientists put it, saying, “I’m not a scientist” in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence is a cheap cop-out.
Future Today
