"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it"

This is thought to have been a rumination made by Charles Dudley Warner way back in the 19th century. But even in the past year, the US, as well as numerous other regions of the world, have experienced extreme weather events that many have attributed to the amplification effects of climate change. Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast of America the week before the Presidential election this month and surprisingly little was mentioned in the campaign about combating climate change. This seems to me rather alarming as my previous post actually explained how rising sea levels and a changing climate were to blame. So why is so little being done by those with so much power to change?

Intriguingly, and a first since 1984, climate change was not mentioned in any of the presidential debates between Obama and Romney. Obama had stated in his 2008 Democratic nomination victory acceptance speech that:

"We will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment...when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."

Something which Romney has since attempted to mock Obama about. At a recent Republican convention in Florida, he declared that while:

"President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans... [he paused for a few seconds, waiting for laughter] ...and to heal the planet. My promise...is to help you and your family."

It seems obvious to me that healing that planet would go a long way to help families in the future but, as you will see in the clip of Mitt Romney below, the audience at the convention do not appear to have linked the two. As well as Obama hitting back by saying “climate change is not a hoax” (SAPA 2012), climate scientist Michael Mann has tweeted his response:

Figure 1: Tweet by Michael Mann on 31 Aug 2012

This short news segment compiling a few climate-related stories in the run up to the election also shows the moment when a heckler disrupted Romney and held up a banner which read, ‘End Climate Silence’, as well as the endorsement of New York City mayor Bloomberg, an independent, for Obama in the wake of Sandy which had ‘reshaped his thinking’ over the election, notably in relation to climate (Hernandez 2012).

It is interesting to note that a Rasmussen poll of likely US voters, the day before the election, found that 68% believed global warming was a ‘serious problem’ (Rasmussen 2012). This, they claim, is an all-time high and markedly up from 46% in 2009. Why then did Obama not use the campaign to talk climate?

Could it be the case, as leading expert on public opinion and climate Professor Edward Maibach (2012) believes, that he was influenced by a false assumption about public opinion? Maibach thinks that by taking a green position, either candidate could have won votes while not alienating other voters.

There is also the view that Obama has had little incentive to talk about climate change as he knows that any promise he makes will be shot down by Republicans in the Senate who are funded by some of the big fossil fuel companies (Monbiot 2012). This was what happened early in his term when he attempted to introduce restrictions on carbon emissions - they questioned the climate science and claimed it would impose a large economic burden.

Where climate came to Obama’s aid was in his dealing with Hurricane Sandy. It won him the backing of Bloomberg and also gave him the opportunity to assume the role of a president that cares about his people. In an interview with the BBC, former editor of the Times and Sunday Times Sir Harry Evans said that he believed Obama “had shown real leadership” during the crisis. He signed off federal aid for affected areas and importantly Sandy sparked debate about climate which so far, had been absent.

The result of the popular vote was 50.4%-48.1% in Obama’s favour. What effect did Sandy have on this result? It is hard to say. But what appears more important though is that the new president is not a climate sceptic and that they realise they do have the power to affect sea levels.


References

Evans, H. (2012) ‘How has Hurricane Sandy affected US polls?’ (WWW), London: BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9766000/9766327.stm; 20 November 2012).

Hernandez, R. (2012) ‘Bloomberg backs Obama, citing fallout from storm’ (WWW), New York: The New York Times
(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/nyregion/bloomberg-endorses-obama-saying-hurricane-sandy-affected-decision.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1353409305-CMqwX95aEfQWMfYbtbPMeA; 22 November 2012).

Maibach, E. (2012) ‘Polling expert: is Obama’s reluctance to mention climate change motivated by a false assumption about public opinion?’ (WWW), ThinkProgress (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/09/08/314629/polling-obama-climate-change-public-opinion; 22 November 2012).

Monbiot, G. (2012) ‘Obama and Romney remain silent on climate change, the biggest issue of all’ (WWW), London: The Guardian  (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/05/obama-romney-remain-silent-climate-change; 21 November 2012).

Rasmussen (2012) ‘Energy update - new high: 68% see global warming as serious problem’ (WWW), Asbury Park: Rasmussen Reports (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/environment_energy/energy_update; 22 November 2012).

SAPA (2012) ‘Obama, Romney asked to debate climate change’ (WWW), Johannesburg: Times Live
(http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2012/10/12/obama-romney-asked-to-debate-climate-change; 21 November 2012).