As the presidential election approaches and I read a little about both Obama and Romney – trying to stay neutral while gathering information – I wondered how important environmental issues are in this election. So I went back on both Obama’s and Romney’s websites and looked for what they had to say about the environment. I was very surprised when I realized that environment protection takes so little space on their websites. Of course, they discuss energy, but they are both mostly interested in how to make the United States independent when it comes to energy, how to cut the need of other countries for oil, how new energy technologies will create jobs and boost the economy. For such a large country, I thought protecting the environment, protecting nature, would be a bigger issue.
France had a presidential election this year too. One of the main differences with the United States when it comes to presidential elections is that our political system is not a two-party system, but we have a lot of different political parties represented. Among those parties we have ecological parties, better known as green parties. Because they concentrate their political program on environmental protection and environmental consciousness, it encourages more traditional parties to dedicate more of their programs to those major issues.
Presidential candidates also discuss environmental issues from an economic point of view, as it is obviously important. But they also discuss concrete ways to take action on those issues. For examples most political parties this year set standards on greenhouse gas emissions and set goals concerning cutting down those emissions.
Even though I think that environmental protection and consciousness should go without saying and not need such campaigns, I realize that advertisement of ecological issues is much needed. Now everyone knows how big the issue is and that some action should be taken if we want to have a chance at stopping global warming. Almost everyone knows what we can do as individuals on a day to day basis to prevent more damages to our natural environment. However, not everyone knows details such as greenhouse gas emissions, not everyone knows what kind of actions a country can take to curb damaging our planet for this generation and for all the future generations. This leads me to thinking that politics is a good means to increase awareness and therefore should be a major issue in a presidential campaign. This is why I was very surprised to see that both presidential candidates didn’t bring it up as much as I expected them to, the President of the United States supposedly being the leader of the free world.
The CEO of google made a good point. I can’t find the quote again (or else I would post it). It was along the lines the political parties need to stop bashing one another and competing, but work together to create a greater America. If the green party, the republicans, the democrats and the other parties contributed to a new America I think that we benefit greatly. It’s easier said then done, but it’s a good thought.
When it seems like everybody is most concerned with money, its hard for the environment to have a say. There is not a good deal of fiscal profits in the environment and that might be the main reason its not a larger political focus. We will have to show the various other intrinsic benefits of nature and hope that can win people over.
I am excited that you brought this up. I was thinking the exact same thing while observing the election and being influenced by the different campaigns. I hardly noticed any environmental issues brought up during the election. I agree that this would have been a great time to influence the public to take a bigger stand against the subject, and at the least be informed of what is happening to our environment.
As I followed the presidential campaigns I did not notice how little they paid attention to the environmental issues. It being such a huge issue that needs to keep being addressed has disappointed me. I am glad that you brought this up so that when it comes to other elections I can be more conscious about the need for them to incorporate environmental issues in their campaigns.
I was also surprised to find that environmental concerns weren’t a major part of the campaign. I knew that the economy and unemployment was probably the biggest issue so I can understand why this overshadowed environmental protection policies and such. I have become increasingly concerned with these subjects of greenhouse gas emissions and understanding the things that people can do to prevent any more harm done to the environment. I did research on Obama’s plan for energy last year for an Alternative Energy class but I don’t recall how much impact his plan is having on America’s dependence on foreign oil or research into alternative energy. I’m not a political person but I still think that environmental issues should have been one of the more major points of Obama and Romney’s campaign but I understand that there were other issues that the candidates had to focus on.
This may be cynical, but the reason behind why the environment, specifically global warming, was a neglected issue in this presidential election is because it is a polarizing issue and candidates, in the interest of getting elected, try and stay clear of controversial topics and play center. Unfortunately, what seems like an obvious reality to us, does not reflect the general American awareness of climate change. The majority of American’s have yet to be convinced and that’s a fight, although entirely worthy, presidential candidates aren’t prepared to make. Instead the issue of environment is pushed under the rug because huge contributions are made to both parties by oil, car and chemical companies to silence this issue. This is the unfortunate dirty reality of American politics and private corporate interests. The only glimmer of hope is that Obama, in his acceptance speech, for the first time this political season, mentioned the threat of global warming. I hope that this is the start and not an end to the conversation of environmental conservation in Washington.
Just as a follow-up to some of the discussion of climate change and politics, I wanted to post this recent study about public perceptions and awareness about climate change/global warming:
http://environment.yale.edu/climate/files/Climate-Beliefs-September-2012.pdf
70% of Americans now believe and are aware of the fact that climate change is happening. Moreover, the survey found that of those who do acknowledge the reality of global warming, more are either “very” or “extremely” certain that it is happening, versus those who don’t believe in global warming who are starting to falter in their own disbelief. Overall, more Americans increasingly understand that climate change is a threat to current and future generations as well as happening in present time.
However, these positive numbers don’t necessarily translate into action. The political status quo and the fact that there is SO MUCH fossil fuel money influencing politics has made it difficult (though not impossible) to build momentum on these positive numbers. Thus, I’d encourage all of you who care about climate change to not be discouraged that “most other people don’t feel the same way.” Most people do feel the same way as you! It’s all about connecting with each other and building a movement, even if our leaders aren’t talking about it. The more we talk about it, eventually they will talk about it.
Thanks for those encouraging statistics, Stephen. Your optimism is much appreciated.