In Candidate Debates & TV Interviews, Eight Of 2,372 Questions Focused On The Environment

[hatrack]

Eight.

EDIT

The League of Conservation Voters, an environmental watchdog group, reports that in the debates in which five Sunday-morning television anchors — George Stephanopoulos, Tim Russert, Wolf Blitzer, Chris Wallace and Bob Schieffer — have participated (17 in total) and in their major interviews with the candidates (176 in total) only eight of the 2,372 questions asked have mentioned global warming or climate change.

That omission is baffling because the environment has become a big issue for Americans. Nearly 6 in 10 people responding to a Pew Research Center poll in January said that protecting the environment and dealing with energy problems should be top priorities.

Americans have awakened to some simple and frightening realities. The earth is getting hotter. The world’s ice is melting. The sea level is rising, and will continue to do so. How much? That’s the question. The answer may largely depend on the course America takes, since we have been the most egregious at treating the air like a sewer for carbon emissions. (Although China may already have caught up.)

Apparently, the moderators didn’t get the message. Instead they revived a more trivial issue, allowing a question that called Mr. Obama’s patriotism into question for not wearing a flag pin on his lapel. Better to have tied patriotism to the environment and ask whose global warming plan will best ensure that no one will ever have to go to Lower Manhattan and point to the spot in the water where ground zero used to be.

EDIT/END

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/opinion/19blow.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[phantom power]

1. so many flag-pin and barbecue questions, so little time...

[ben_meyers]

2. Al Gore laments the lack of concern also

In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Mr Gore – hailed as the world’s leading green campaigner – said recent polls had found that while people rate climate change as a “serious problem”, some ranked it lower than clearing up dog mess.
“When politicians walk down the pavement, four or five of every ten people they meet ask, ‘What are you doing to solve the climate crisis?’ he said. “If you ask people their opinion, more than two thirds will say, ‘It’s a very serious issue, we’re responsible for it. We need to take action’.
“But then if you give them a list of 25 or 30 issues and ask them to rank them in order of seriousness, climate change comes at the bottom or near the bottom.
“I remember one poll where it came under dog litter. People are more likely to respond to problems that can be felt – terrorism, traffic jams, anything that activates the responses in an immediate way.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/special_events/green_week/article1065876.ece

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