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Keeping Climate Change in the Shadows: The GOP Debate

On August 6th, 2015, Fox News hit a record number of viewers as 24 million people sat down to watch the 2015 GOP Debate. This debate featured Republican candidates Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Chris Christie along with many other candidates. During the debate, many hot button topics were brought into the spotlight except for one that was kept in the shadows.

That topic was climate change.

This snub was pointed out by news outlets and social media posts and it did not go unnoticed by the viewers at home. Bernie Sanders said it best when he posted this tweet stating “It’s over. Not one word about economic inequality, climate change, Citizens United or student debt. That’s why the Rs are so out of touch.” a post which later became the most retweeted post of any presidential candidates that night.

But what will happen if we ignore climate change like it was ignored in the GOP Debate? The results will be a lot more serious than a few twitter posts. Climate change is one of the first fallen dominoes in a line of many more to come. Our continued dependence on fossil fuels creates emissions that have resulted in month after month of record breaking high temperatures. After that, climate change could lead to crop shortages, species extinction, water shortages, and many other disasters that are essentially going to make our planet a really difficult place to live. We cannot afford to ignore climate change.

Maurita Obermiller, Intern