At what point did America forget about our environmental crisis? In the recent political campaigns for the presidential office, it is almost as though it is not an issue anymore. I thought that we had woken up, that something, since 2008 might had changed, but even in the wake of our highest heat wave in recent history, one that will go down as the longest and hottest heat waves in U.S. history, neither of the front running candidates have mentioned their strategy for our future. Not once was the environment or more specifically global warming, mentioned in any of the presidential debates this year. This is the first time that climate change has not made it into a presidential debate in roughly ten years.
This is extremely worrisome, especially since we are at a time when artic ice is at unprecedented lows, temperatures are record high, and finally 97% of scientists are connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate change, with the other 3% being the scientists who get paid by the oil companies. What scientists are our candidates getting their information from… makes me wonder. Climate change is an issue that is threatening our society, and we have to face the facts. Erich Pica, president of the environmental group Friends of the Earth Action said after the final debate, “Climate change is a global threat that requires a global response. Yet neither candidate saw fit to address climate change’s implications for foreign policy. By ignoring climate change, both President Obama and Governor Romney are telling the rest of the world that they do not take it seriously, and that America cannot be expected to act with the intensity and urgency needed to avert catastrophe.” Erich Pica goes on to say how both candidates’ ignorance and silence on the issue will lead to much worse consequences.
As an environmental studies student, this disheartens me like no other. I had much more hope for environmental talk in this election before the debates started. I watched on my couch like an anxious little boy waiting to see if these potential leaders had anything to say about the issue that I will devote my life to. Disappointment is what followed, for the only thing close to climate change was the mention of alternate energy choices, but that was in economic context, and in no way showing that our country is looking to end our addiction to fossil fuels. I firmly believe that this country needs a top-down gut check, to see where our priorities are. For the future of this country depends on the decisions being made today.
Rachel Carson, in “Silent Spring” makes a statement that still pertains to our current situation. On page 13 she writes: “There is still very limited awareness of the nature of the threat. This is an era of specialists, each of whom sees his own problem and is unaware of or intolerant of the larger frame into which it fits. It is also an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged.” Interesting that this language goes hand in hand with environmental challenges from the 1960’s, and the environmental problems we face today. I couldn’t help but add this to my post…enjoy!
This post is extremely interesting especially today since it is election day. I wasnt able to watch the debates so it’s very interesting to learn that our candidates didnt address such an important topic. I also thought that the comment you made to your post is also very interesting in the fact that for the past 40+ years, nobody will address this issue. If Carson wrote about it in the 1950s and it is still present today, then there is an obvious need for some proposed solutions to the problem. I really liked your post. Good job!
I noticed the same thing when watching the debate. Ever since starting this class I have become more interested in our environment and the actions that we should be taking, so I too was surprised to see that neither of the candidates addressed the environment in their speeches. I hope that Obama realizes the importance of making a difference as soon as possible so we have a better hope for the next generations. The information that we are learning in class needs to be relayed to the public and I am disappointed that the elections did not use that perfect opportunity.
I had similar feelings about how the candidates seemed to leave the issue completely alone. I didn’t catch the entirety of the debates by any means, so I can’t speak to what all was or wasn’t said. But there were times I was watching where there was an ideal opportunity to launch a discussion about how the two agendas would compare regarding the changing climate, for example. Instead, it morphed into a weird tug-of-war about who was more of an “oil man”. Again, this was only one particular conversation, but I was sitting there watching two people (in my take) totally in each others heads, trying to outdo the other candidate with a lost sight of what they where competing over. I think it was Mitt probably, that put Obama on defense by saying something like, this guy doesn’t have kahones to keep America’s energy supply healthy. And from there things got defensive and personal and it became a back and forth debate about who’s willing to dig up the most oil. “I’m the bigger oil man!” may have been an actual quote… But there was never a digression to the idea of weening off oil or acknowledging that it was a short-term fix/limited resource or tuning into the more long-term logistics of expanding beyond the current energy system. I agree that the wind had definitely been taken out of the sails of more objective environmental issues, and that the focus of the debates relied too heavily on immediate voter subjectivity. What is hard to get around, i guess, because of the immediate pressure from voters, is the question will you bring us jobs and energy right NOW? or won’t you? And this clouded the the more important argument in my opinion.
It is indeed difficult, as Michael suggests, to get beyond the immediate and the close-at-hand, for both voters and politicians. We always have difficulties changing our thought processes and our value systems to account for the longer time frames and vaster spatial scales of the socio-environmental problems of today (I call them socio-environmental because most problems, like climate change, like food security, even like the 6th mass extinction event that we are currently witnessing, are problems that include both social and environmental dimensions). Moreover, our political system, as Sam argues, is not set up to tackle these problems, not with politicians always worried about reelection and always dependent on the money of big business.
However, it would be too easy to lose hope and stop working. Your post suggests that we need a “top-down gut check” (a phrase that I absolutely love), but perhaps we also need some “bottom-up” hip-checking (pardon the pun) as well. That is, perhaps we need to harness the outrage that many of us (especially young people) feel at seeing the most important issues of our time totally neglected, and channel it into something active and productive. Carson was able to tap into people’s fears and turn them into outrage, and then channel that emotion into action. There are similar writers working on today’s biggest socio-environmental issues like climate change: Bill McKibben, Kathleen Dean Moore, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Wangari Maathai, Njabulo Ndebele, Arundhati Roy, Indra Sinha. If you’re interested it might be worth checking them out! I can certainly point you in specific directions if you’re interested.