Victoria Pease

Correspondent (North America)

 

While both political parties are taking their final strides towards Tuesday’s election, US citizens seem more uninformed than ever. In light of hurricane Sandy, the media has directed sudden attention to global warming and the neglect of both political parties to emphasize its severity throughout the campaign. The agenda presented by both presidential candidates on the tackling of growing carbon emissions is meager at best, failing to include any presentation of costs and benefits of investing into deeper research.

The Republican Party, however, takes this further by not only neglecting the significance of climate change, but also ridiculing it.

This advertisement made by Forecast the Facts by climatesilence.org shows Romney talking at the Republican National Convention. In mocking President Obama on rising sea-levels, the video aggressively shows how blind Governor Romney is to reality, his disengagement with scientific research and incompetence in educating the public.

While hurricane Sandy may have reopened debate on climate change, a large percentage of Americans seem resistant to it. The absence of addressing global warming during and around the presidential debates as a primary environmental issue has shaped a citizenry immune to thinking beyond the simplified campaign discussions. By mocking Obama’s statement that sea-levels are rising, however, Romney is also discrediting science as a reliable and respected discipline, while giving the public no reason to explore the implications made on climate change. One must only look at the video below to understand the severity of the situation.

On a personal note, this second video is the most aggravating of all. When a man shouts out, “What about the climate?”, and holds up a sign saying ‘End Climate Silence’, Romney is taken by surprise. In the awkward instance that follows, the crowd begins to boo at the man and chant ‘U-S-A’, saving Romney from being pinned-down on an embarrassing gap of scripted knowledge. The fact that Romney does not believe climate change is in fact man-made not only suggests ignorance and stupidity, but also a disinterest in citizen voices reaching beyond his own.

Whether hurricane Sandy had an effect on the tracking of polls or disrupted early voting should really not be the issue across news networks. Understanding why storm intensity is increasing, why sea levels are rising and oceans are warming all point to investments into sustainable development, climate science research and renewable energy sources as valuable and beneficial to the future. The reason why this denial exists among the Republican Party is in part due to the high costs linked to motivating anti-climate change initiatives and policies. At a fundraiser just about a year ago, Romney replied to a question on stopping global warming, saying, ‘it loses jobs for Americans and ultimately it won’t be successful, because industries that are energy intensive will just get up and go somewhere else. So it doesn’t make any sense at all’. One can say, dealing with unexpected natural disasters is simply not part of the Romney plan.

Why the public is so resistant to the truth, is an important topic of discussion. Is this denial the fault of government, or is the media not playing its part in informing citizens correctly, in investigating the claims made by powerful political parties to provide objective and balanced news? Forecast the Facts says the media is ‘a huge source of the problem’, because they provide conflicting ideas without clear evidence for the public to follow. Romney’s denial to climate change being a man-made consequence should definitely be countered by the media with great confidence.