“I’M NOT A SCIENTIST” IS FINALLY OVER — NOW IT’S TIME FOR SOLUTIONS
Last week among the name-calling, punching, and eye-rolling, something big happened: Republican candidates finally engaged in a dialog on national television about climate change.
In 2012, climate change wasn’t even raised once during the presidential debates between Mitt Romney and President Obama. And on the campaign trail in 2014, when asked about what they would do to address climate change, Republican candidates across the country refused to have a conversation about it, hiding behind the line “I’m not a scientist.”
Now, less than a year later, “I’m not a scientist” is dead as a mainstream GOP talking point and outright denial of the existence of climate change is an untenable position for any serious presidential candidate. While the candidates in the most recent debate did not propose ANY solutions to address the climate crisis and failed to recognize the massive threat climate change poses to our economic security — they did not challenge the science of climate change. Even Florida Senator Marco Rubio — an early adopter of the “I’m not a scientist” line — rebuffed debate moderator Jake Tapper for calling him a climate change denier, instead insisting that he wasn’t arguing about climate science.
The time is ripe for Republican candidates to recognize what voters in both parties already know: we urgently need to address climate change and solutions to cut carbon pollution, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and create new jobs. Polling has shown that a majority of Republican voters in key swing states FAVOR achieving more than 50 percent clean energy by 2030. In fact, 78 percent of all voters want our political leaders to take action to combat climate change.
The American people know that climate change is the kind of problem only America can solve. Now, the candidates have to join the growing coalition of religious, business and military leaders across the country calling for action on climate change.
It’s time for a robust debate about solutions, because failing to act on climate change will devastate our economy. Citigroup estimates climate change could cost the global economy as much as $44 trillion. In the six weeks before the third Republican presidential debate in Boulder, Colorado — a city that has made a strong commitment to clean energy — the presidential candidates have a responsibility to lay out their campaign’s specific plans to address the threat of climate change and build a clean energy economy. A good start is explaining how our country can get to more than 50 percent clean energy by 2030, putting us on the path to a completely clean energy economy by 2050.
