This week The Takeaway is examining issues ignored this election year in a short series called “Don’t Mention It.” Yesterday’s installment involved a look at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Today, the neglected issue on the table is climate change.
At the Republication National Convention in Tampa, the subject of climate change was reduced to a well-received punch-line for Mitt Romney. “President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet,” he said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “My promise,” he concluded, “is to help you and your family.”
President Obama did have a response to that line a week later at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, where he said, simply, “climate change is not a hoax.” The president’s discussion of environmental policy didn’t get much farther than that, however. Now, with just over a month till voting day talk of climate change is essentially absent from campaign rhetoric of both presidential candidates. Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer at The New Yorker, has noticed the absence of discussion of climate issues.