Imagine this. You’re Dianne Feinstein, and you’re sitting in your office doing—I dunno—political
things. And then, you’re asked to speak to a bunch of young climate activists. They, being kids and all,
are kinda annoying, and you rebuke and contradict their naive and idealistic points. After all, they don’t
understand the difficulty that being a politician entails, and you’re frickin’ Dianne Feinstein! You’re
one of the most progressive members of congress when it comes to climate change!
things. And then, you’re asked to speak to a bunch of young climate activists. They, being kids and all,
are kinda annoying, and you rebuke and contradict their naive and idealistic points. After all, they don’t
understand the difficulty that being a politician entails, and you’re frickin’ Dianne Feinstein! You’re
one of the most progressive members of congress when it comes to climate change!
Well. Dianne Feinstein did get in trouble for contradicting those kids. The number one rule of politics
is to NEVER disagree with kids when they’re in front of you. But this brings up a more fundamental
and interesting debate. Climate change is becoming a more pressing issue in American politics.
is to NEVER disagree with kids when they’re in front of you. But this brings up a more fundamental
and interesting debate. Climate change is becoming a more pressing issue in American politics.
In the upcoming 2020 election, among Democratic candidates, climate change is becoming a focal
point for candidates and their agendas. According to ABC News, in 2016, Clinton and Trump spent
only 6 minutes in their debates talking about climate change. In 2012, Obama and Romney ignored
the topic altogether. In this year’s cycle, climate change has been discussed numerous times by candidates, some of whom (i.e Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and more) have made climate change a focal issue.
In the September 2019 climate strikes, millions of Americans—many of whom students—participated
in striking for the environment. It is obvious that climate change has become a huge point for younger
voters, and candidates are clambering to get their vote. But who knows what will happen? Will these
voters succeed in getting a candidate who supports their agenda into office? Or will this just be a
political fad? Time will tell.
- What is the difference between what politicians agree with, and what they can actually accomplish?
- Will pushing the Democratic party to be more progressive move the overall political discourse to
become more progressive? - Will climate change become a more and more important element in future political discourse?
3. The increased attention to climate change in presidential campaigns indicates that the issue will become a more important element in future political discourse. Whereas Clinton and Trump dedicated less than six minutes to the topic in the 2016 presidential debates, the 2020 Democratic candidates examined it for nearly 43 minutes in debates for the upcoming presidential election. Climate change appears to be emerging as a more and more pressing issue, and this trend is likely to continue, given the growth in size, scope, and impact of youth-led activism. Most notably, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg inspired a global climate strike on September 20, and according to Youth Climate Strike Coalition founder Katie Eder, such efforts have driven 2020 candidates to keep up the conversation about climate change. Although some of these younger activists may not be able to vote in the 2020 presidential election, they will be even more powerful than the voting bloc and constitute the "silent majority" that will push politicians to seriously consider policies to combat climate change.
ReplyDelete3. I definitely think that as more young people turn 18 and become active voters, climate change will become a more important topic. Because older people generally make up the largest voting demographic, politicians gear their positions towards them. As climate change has become a more pressing matter, I think that younger generations have become even more politically active (see: Greta Thunberg). In the coming years, I think we are going to see a huge transition among political leaders in how they approach issues such as climate change.
ReplyDeleteI think that as time goes on, the talk about climate change will be a more important topic for future elections. And I think that as stated above, young people are the key to doing this. As people get older they tend to become more and more conservative or stuck in their ways. As younger generations move up in the world, I hope that the concern surrounding climate change will become more pressing.
ReplyDelete3. The talk about climate change won't dissipate any time soon as people like Greta Thunberg and more people from the younger generations are speaking out about the future of the world. With the increased natural disasters that are happening at a more intense and frequent rate, people are worried about the future and the cost that climate change will have. Climate change has the possibility to displace millions and cost trillions for governments around the world which poses several threats to our existence so the discussion around climate change won't stop being in the forefront of our political discussions until some type of action is taken.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that climate change will become a bigger issue in future elections as more industries are expected to meet stricter regulations. On top of this issues regarding climate change have slowly come to the fore front of the media a lot more, and as a result groups of concerned civilians have begun forming across the nation pushing for stricter energy regulations. As this issue becomes more publicized it's need to be discussed in elections does as well.
ReplyDelete3. Yes, Democrats will always want to protect the climate first and the Republicans will always try to protect the economy. The Democrats want to protect the environment at the expense of jobs and corporate earnings. Meanwhile, Republicans want to protect jobs and corporate profits at the expense of the environment. Ideally, there should be a middle ground where we can sacrifice as little as possible on both ends. There are some jobs that are harmful to the environment and they should be eliminated; However, we should not blindly take away people's jobs blindly for the sake of protecting the environment.
ReplyDelete3. Of course climate change will become a more important issue while on this course of destruction on the planet that would lead to unsafe living conditions. The tricky part about climate change is that there isn't one single person or source to blame for climate change, it's a series of actions that turn into a well-oiled machine and move faster and faster with new technologies and organizations to help the process. With several combinations of large industrial corporations such as the food industry, the oil industry, or transportational industries and many more, it's putting more carbon emissions and plastic into the air that causes the environmental warnings. As long as these processes continue at this fast rate, climate change becomes a bigger and more concerning issue.
ReplyDelete3. I believe Climate Change will become an increasingly important issue in politics because eventually, it will no longer be possible to deny the existence of climate change, and action will have to be taken in order to prevent serious destruction to the environment. Additionally, as younger generations become eligible to vote, politicians will have to address climate change and solutions to appeal to this age group.
ReplyDeleteClimate change will become increasingly more important in politics within the next few years because it is such a big deal among younger generations. The "silent majority," the younger generations that are not yet able to vote, are soon going to be able to become politically active, which will change the outcomes of elections. As there are more and more protests and climate change is becoming a bigger part of political issues, it makes it harder for politicians to ignore. That and the new scientific findings, are what is causing politicians to incorporate the environment into their political agendas.
ReplyDelete3. Climate change is destined to become a more important political issue in the future as the problem only becomes more dangerous and urgent as time passes. Climate change has already surfaced to become a much bigger issue than it has been in the past because people are finally seeing the clear impacts of climate change on the planet, and science has advanced to present more evidence for the event. In this age of information and science, the youth are being educated about the impacts of carbon emission and the threat climate change poses to our future. The youth will then rise to become voters, and if they are united, they may be able to turnout to vote enough for the people in power to listen. This will speed up the process in terms of how big of a topic climate change will become, but I believe that it will grow as an issue regardless because of the rapidly increasing impacts of climate change that threaten the environment, our health, and the economy.
ReplyDelete3. I think Climate Change has been recently and will continue to be in years to come. In the current Democratic debates, it has been one of the most discussed topics along with Health Care. This is because science has advanced and people are starting to see the effects it really has. There have been many more activists attempting to inform the public, and I think the more we raise awareness, the more hopeful we can be about politicians enacting legislation to combat climate change.
ReplyDelete3. I think that the discourse might actually decrease in the coming years. For the first time ever I think the parts of the conservative party are starting to believe in climate change, and will start to push for reform. The discourse between the parties in the near future will be more about how radical the change needs to be rather than if we should have any at all. While this change in tone may end up being more decisive, I would rather be having that conversation compared to having to convince millions of people that climate change is actually real.
ReplyDelete3. I believe that climate change will become a more important topic in the future as the issue of global warming becomes more of a threat to our society. We can already see in the Democratic debates that climate change is a frequent topic and it will only continue to until we do something about it. As the younger generation grows up and becomes eligible to vote, they can change the government's outlook on climate change policies.
ReplyDelete3. I believe that there are many different parts of climate changes and some have the possibility to have an influence on elections in the future because of the thought of losing our planet. I believe there has been parts that are been accepted by both sides that will hopefully lead to some resolution, but we are far far from the final answer.
ReplyDelete3. As more indisputable scientific evidence comes out in favor of climate change, it will become increasingly prominent in politics. It is already an important issue for most democratic candidates, as well as an increasing amount of republicans as well. I also think that as more people begin to view it as a pressing issue, the conversation will shift from acknowledging the problem to finding solutions.
ReplyDelete#2 I think the United States is currently in a unique state in which our political discourse is becoming more polarized over time. In other words, should the Democrats adopt a more aggressive and progressive stance on climate change, it would be safe to assume that Republicans would match this shift in the opposite direction. In fact, we can already see how views on climate change have diverged along partisan lines over the past decade by how 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain had stated "I believe that climate change is real... We have an obligation to future generations to take action and fix it." Granted, as the effects of global warming become harder and harder to ignore, we have seen Republicans shift their talking points from outright denial of climate change or that it is not the result of human activity, to attacking progressive reforms as being economically unfeasible.
ReplyDelete3. Climate change will definitely be a more important element in the future as people begin to experience the effects of climate change and more studies are done. Soon, rather than arguing over whether climate change is real or not, politicians will begin arguing for their plans on how to solve the climate change issue. As more Americans are educated than ever before, they will focus on larger problems such as climate change, immigration, etc. These Americans will vote for candidates who support their views on climate change. Since a lot of people already value climate change, we see it becoming a more prevalent topic and soon, it will become more prevalent.
ReplyDelete3. Throughout the 2019 Democratic debates, climate change has continued to become a more pressing issue, and it will continue to become a staple in political discourse. While not everyone American is directly affected by health care plans, public education proposals, and gender discrimination, it is difficult to deny that climate change is affecting each of our lives. Seen in today's Democratic debate, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders stated that the fight against climate change gives us numerous opportunities. In addition, Sanders advocated the declaration of climate change as a national emergency, and hopes the entire world would allocate their resources to address climate change.
ReplyDelete3. It is clear that young people are the ones who care most about climate change, and as they grow older and begin to vote, politicians will put more emphasis on appealing to this specific demographic. As a result, climate change will continue to be a staple in political discourse, likely becoming more important as time passes. In addition, addressing climate change is a time sensitive issue, that gets worse with every election. Politicians who understand this will put more emphasis on this issue in future elections.
ReplyDelete3. I believe that climate change will become a more and more important element in future political discourse since younger people are becoming increasingly more educated about it. As young people begin to vote and future generations begin to vote, the electorate's views as a whole will likely be much more liberal, especially regarding the importance of climate change. Another reason for the increased liberalization of the electorate will also be the immigration of many Hispanic people, who tend to vote for the Democratic Party (which is very concerned with climate change right now). Additionally, as the environment worsens, it may become more difficult for conservatives to deny the existence of climate change and thus it may become a more focal issue.
ReplyDelete3). I believe it will become a more and more important element discussion in political discourse since more of the younger population is reaching the eligibility to vote and this is one of the most important issues to them. From a logical standpoint, the issue of climate change will get increasingly important due to the urgency of the issue because as scientists have said multiple times, if we do not take action soon there will be irreversible damage. Due to a influx of young voters and the amount of voters under 21 rising every year and the increasing urgency of such an issue, Climate Change will soon be front and center of every debate.
ReplyDelete3. Believe that climate change will become more common in political discourse in the future for two reasons. Firstly climate change is an important issue to many members of generation z and they will their views to be reflected in politics. Additionally as climate change becomes more unavoidable we will have to use politics to deal with the consequences.
ReplyDelete