Climate change on political back burner

When Americans elect a president in 2112, they might look back across the previous century and view this year’s election with regret, marking it as a time when the nation failed to take climate change seriously enough.

Neither President Barack Obama, Republican nominee Mitt Romney nor their running mates have mentioned climate change or global warming in any of the four debates held this month. They weren’t asked about it, either, but that didn’t stop them from bringing up topics they wanted to discuss.
Jonathan Gilligan, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt University, said it’s a noticeable change from 2008, when both Obama and U.S. Sen. John McCain promised action on climate change.
“It’s really missing an important issue,” he said. “But a lot of other things get people’s attention a lot more readily.
“This is real. It’s happening. The amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean, up around the North Pole, by a very large measure it set a record for the smallest amount this summer.”

Gilligan said that could present a national security issue as Russia and China seek to take control of those waters when they become navigable.

“When I’ve talked to people in the Navy, they’re very aware that the Arctic Ocean is going to become very important strategically. So even people who don’t care about hugging trees but just want to keep the country strong had better be thinking and planning.”

Gilligan said recent research also has shown an increase in the number of places experiencing record heat. Nashville residents knew what he was talking about last summer. At 109 degrees, June 29 was the hottest day in the city’s history — part of a 10-day stretch in which the city recorded eight daily record high temperatures.

John McFadden, executive director of the Tennessee Environmental Council, said the day-to-day impact of climate change sometimes gets ignored.

For example, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga are three of the five most challenging places in the nation to live with asthma, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America said earlier this year. Nashville ranked 26th.

“The thing that gets lost in the whole climate change debate is that there are real costs to human health and the economy related to the burning of fossil fuels,” McFadden said.

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