Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Wednesday, September 28th, 2016

Climate Change Got 82 Seconds in the Presidential Debate and That’s 82 seconds more than in the 2012 debates.

Author:     Emma Foehringer Merchant
Source:     Mother Jones
Publication Date:     Sep. 27, 2016 5:11 PM
 Link: Climate Change Got 82 Seconds in the Presidential Debate and That’s 82 seconds more than in the 2012 debates.
Stephan:   The almost complete absence of discussion about climate change is gobsmacking. We face a civilization threatening crisis and one party's position -- the Republicans -- is that the whole thing is a scam. Donald Trump apparently believes, if his tweets are to be believed, that climate change is a con created by the Chinese. Really. But the Democrats aren't much better, and the American populace, well as a people we just don't seem to be willing to factually address this threat. Just keep this in mind: 400 American cities in whole or part are going to be submerged by the end of the century.  
Credit: Ron Sachs/CNP via ZUMA

Credit: Ron Sachs/CNP via ZUMA

One minute and 22 seconds were spent on climate change and other environmental issues in Monday’s presidential debate—and that was pretty much all Hillary Clinton talking. (Surprise, surprise.) How does that compare to debates in past years? We ran the numbers on the past five election cycles to find out.

The high point for attention to green issues came in 2000, when Al Gore and George W. Bush spent just over 14 minutes talking about the environment over the course of three debates. The low point came in 2012, when climate change and other environmental issues got no time at all during the presidential debates. Some years, climate change came up during the vice presidential debates as well.

2016 so far: 1 minute, 22 seconds in one presidential debate.

2012: 0 minutes.

2008: 5 minutes, 18 seconds in two presidential debates. An additional 5 minutes, 48 seconds in a vice presidential debate.

2004: 5 minutes, 14 seconds in a single presidential debate.

2000: 14 minutes, 3 seconds in three presidential debates. 5 minutes, 21 seconds in a […]

Read the Full Article