Candidates cool to warming

In the midst of the heated Republican primary season, one issue heartbreakingly absent is global climate change and any start of a plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions, convert to green energies, invest in new technologies or start to collaborate with the rest of the world on combating rising CO2 levels.

At best, Republicans clamor over who is most anti-science, who supports the oil industry greatest, and who will build pipelines and the like (“Drill, baby, drill”) to further worsen our global dilemma. There is not just one study that confirms human-caused rising CO2 and its implications, but thousands. If we ever are in a position to look back on these days and attempt to explain the Republican stance, it will be one of incredible greed, dishonesty, willful ignorance and denial.

All Americans should demand that our government acknowledge science, and that it join the bipartisan work that needs to be done to keep our planet habitable, for us and all life. Obviously, it shouldn’t be a political issue at all but rather a moral one and a practical matter of survival.

It’s the greatest challenge humans have ever faced, with the highest stakes.

Jordan Leach

Spokane