Climate change MIA during CNN national security debate

Climate change received zero attention when the Republican presidential candidates met on November 22, 2011 at the CNN National Security Debate.

Is the climate crisis a matter of national security? Experts at the Department of Defense and seem to think so. Just last month, the DOD’s Defense Science Board Task Force issued a report warning that:

Changes in climate patterns and their impact on the physical environment can create profound effects on populations in parts of the world and present new challenges to global security and stability. Failure to anticipate and mitigate these changes increases the threat of more failed states with instabilities and potential for conflict inherent in such failures.

Apparently none of the GOP presidential candidates got the memo. When the issue of energy independence did come up at the CNN National Security Debate, they continued to call for policies that would simply replace foreign oil from countries like Iran with oil drilled domestically or in Canada, an approach that is likely to increase global greenhouse gas emissions.

It’s a shame that moderator Wolf Bitzer failed to raise the issue of climate change during the debate, as Americans deserve to know where the presidential candidates stand on all matters on national security. 

For more of the latest news on climate change and the 2012 election: 

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