Climate Change: One Reason Republicans will Lose the Election

When eight of the nine candidates running for the Republican nomination for president stood on a Milwaukee stage last week for their first debate, I was waiting for them to cover one topic. After a devastating summer overfilled with weather headlines, including the hurricane lashing Florida as I write, I was waiting for their take on climate change. 

To my huge surprise, I didn't have to wait long.

Just 20 minutes in, Fox moderators noted that 1,000 people were still unaccounted for in Maui (the number is now below 400), southern California was just hit by the worst storm in 84 years, Florida’s ocean temperatures measured an unprecedented 101 degrees, and the Southwest was suffering its worst heat wave in 50 years. They played a video of a college student who noted that climate was the number one issue for young people, and asked, “How would you calm their fears that the Republican party doesn't care about climate change?” The moderators requested a show of hands if they agreed that people caused climate change.

Just as former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson seemed about to raise his hand-- the only one, I should add-- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis quickly cut in. “Look, we’re not schoolchildren,” he objected. Instead of hand-raising, “let’s have the debate.” And he immediately sidestepped the issue, instead condemning Joe Biden over his response to Maui. Confused, the moderators asked DeSantis, “So was that a yes?”

Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley leaned into her colleagues. “Yes, it is real,” she agreed, the only one brave enough to say this, but “we have to start telling India and China to lower their emissions. That’s when we’ll start dealing with climate change.” OK, yes, China is now the world’s largest carbon emitter, but historically, the US is responsible for 25% of the carbon loaded into the atmosphere, with China only at 14% and India a whopping 3%. Both countries have long looked to the US for signals to curtail their emissions, and lacking that, they have continued building coal-fired power plants

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott offered the strange statistic that as “America has cut our carbon footprint in half in the last 25 years” (wow, it simply has not), and inexplicably, offered that it’s up to Africa to fix the issue. You know, the continent that emits a whopping 3% of the world’s greenhouse gasses. 

But the stupidest answer came from biotech entrepreneur and debate wunderkind Vivek Ramaswamy who bludgeoned climate change as a “hoax… The reality is the anti-carbon agenda is the wet blanket on our economy.” And then he straight-up lied: "And so the reality is more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change." Reality check: the World Meteorological Organization estimates that extreme weather disasters exacerbated by climate change have caused more than two million deaths between 1970 and 2021. To no one’s surprise, Ramaswamy has not answered reporters’ followup questions on this matter.

And that was pretty much it. 

That student’s fears were not calmed, as no rational response to climate change emerged. But he was absolutely correct: climate change is a huge issue for young voters, and the Republican Party is quickly making itself irrelevant to a large swath of the electorate, who turn elsewhere for responsible responses to the threat. This will be especially true as they mature into adults in an even hotter world. 

I am a climate voter. After a summer of epic and shattering climate events, I will not be alone. 

And this will be one of many reasons the Republican Party will lose not only the 2024 election, but the future.