US elections and climate change issue
Photo: AFP
A recent article of this daily entitled “Hurricane Sandy, climate change and some thoughts” says that the words 'climate', 'warming' or 'greenhouse effect' were not used once in the recent US presidential debate cycle for the first time in 24 years. Neither President Barack Obama nor his rival Mitt Romney is talking about climate change in their election campaigns. Whereas, undoubtedly, this is one of the most critical issues of our time. Anyway, recently hurricane Sandy killed at least 55 people in the USA and still millions are living without power. And this is on track to be the largest storm ever to hit the East Coast, with damage estimated at tens of billions of dollars. Besides, studies say that in 2011 the 14 most severe weather events in the country cost the US close to $140 billion. Of course, climate change issue should have been on the meeting agenda focusing the election. Voters should ask the presidential candidates to disclose their plans for tackling this global problem. Scientists and the media are still struggling with how to communicate the complexities. Naturally, silence on this issue in the US election campaigns would make their struggle harder. As the USA is one of the major contributors to global warming, the country can not ignore its responsibility to help find out a solution in this regard. However, we express our deep sympathy for the cyclone victims of the USA from Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change.
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