Sarah van Gelder – Choosing a President in a Time of Climate Crisis

The burning of Fort McMurray in the Canadian province of Alberta is a terrifying glimpse of what a climate crisis looks like. While scientists are cautious about attributing any one event to global warming, the months without rain followed by unusually high temperatures are exactly the sort of conditions associated with a warming planet—and they set the conditions for big fires.

The dangers of runaway climate change make this U.S. presidential race pivotal. Our next president must be someone who understands the science, can build support for a clean energy future, and is independent enough from the fossil fuel industry and its investors to make the right choices.

The presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, is unqualified. He is a climate denier. In an interview with The Washington Post editorial board, he dismissed the conclusion of 97 percent of climate scientists, saying, “I think there’s a change in weather. I am not a great believer in man-made climate change.” And in a 2014 tweet, he said: “This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop.” He supports building the Keystone XL pipeline, claiming on Fox News, “It’s not an environmental problem at all, in any way, shape, or form.”

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