One (slightly) encouraging sign: The most emailed story on the McClatchey newspapers site recently was a story about how the campaigns are talking (or not talking) about climate change.
Although climate change typically ranks below such issues as the
economy, polling done in March 2012 by Yale University and George Mason
University found that 72 percent of Americans think that global warming
should be a priority for the president and Congress. Among registered
voters, 84 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of independents and 52
percent of Republicans think global warming should be a priority.
Regardless
of the candidates’ relative silence about global warming on the
campaign trail, the next president will face tough choices on
controversial energy and environmental issues such as whether to approve
the Keystone XL pipeline and how to handle natural gas development and
the environmentally fraught “fracking” that goes with it.
The
silence on the campaign trail belies the reality – and the gravity – for
many coastal communities. Planners in south Florida and New York City
already are looking at the multibillion-dollar expense of upgrading
infrastructure to address rising sea levels.
Until
recently, though, climate change has been so low a priority in the
year’s political discourse that some major political contributors with a
strong interest in environmental issues have been reserved in their
giving.
Kit Stolz 