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Could There be a Climate Change Question for the First Debate?

August 24, 2012; 12:21 PM

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) has begun an online petition drive to get Jim Lehrer of PBS, who is moderating the first presidential debate, to ask the two candidates about how they will confront climate change.

The actual question that the LCV wants Lehrer to ask is...."What is your plan to address the climate crisis?"

The first debate is Oct. 3, 2012, at the University of Denver in Colorado. The debates are run by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

The 2008 Presidential Debate (McCain/Obama) Courtesy of the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Hopefully, I will be wrong, but I suspect that this request will be a tough sell as both candidates have been putting this issue in the far background of their campaigns, if at all.

An paragraph from the actual LCV petition to Jim Lehrer of PBS.........

July was the hottest month ever recorded in U.S. history and climate scientists tell us that's not a coincidence. Yet, according to Media Matters, only 8.7% of TV news segments talked about the connection between July's heat wave and climate change. By asking bold questions in this debate, you can change this trend. We appreciate that the PBS NewsHour has covered issues of climate change with the gravity that it requires. Now we ask that you apply that same integrity to your questions during the presidential debate and generate the substantive discussion about global warming on the national stage that our country needs to have right now.

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com

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