Environment Places Low on Candidates’ Priority Lists

by Connor Martin ’13

The 2012 presidential election is just 13 months away, and the battle for the Republican nomination is in full swing. Republicans are not only looking for the person who represents the Republican Party to the core, but also for the nominee that has “electability.” In other words, Republicans want the person who can rally the nation and receive enough of the independent vote to beat out President Obama in a general election.

One of the factors that independent voters often consider in their decision making process is the candidate’s stand on climate change and the environment. “Candidates who took a green position gained votes, and candidates who took not-green positions lost votes,” reported by Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment.

People who hold the “green” position believe that global warming does indeed exist and is being made worse by human activity. They also believe that the government has the responsibility to take action against this progressing problem and come up with solutions and regulations to ensure the reduction of human-caused pollution.

However, this Stanford study does not change the views that the current Republican candidates have on the environment. Most of those candidates running for office do not believe the scientists who say that humans are one of the main reasons for the rising temperatures of the planet.

Current Republican frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Perry have two different opinions on this issue but neither candidate is fully convinced that global warming is something that definitely exists. Romney has flip-flopped on the issue, saying that “maybe the world is getting hotter,” and “maybe humans contribute to climate change.” Perry is much more sure about his beliefs that global warming is just an “unproven theory.” As for the other candidates, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul agree completely with Perry and his opinion. Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann are similar to Romney, and do not have a definite stance. Jon Huntsman is one of the only major Republican candidates who has said that human activity contributes to global warming.

Huntsman has the same view as President Obama, who believes that global warming does in fact exist. However, Obama has not thus far placed the issue high on his list of priorities. In fact, Obama recently turned on his own proposed smog standards that would have forced states to reduce air pollution.