http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/18/science/hillary-cinton-donald-trump-global-warming.html 2016-10-17 20:38:36 For Clinton and Trump, There’s Little Debating a Climate Change Divide Most Americans say they are interested in the issue, but it came up only once in the first two debates and is not among topics listed for the third. === The third presidential debate, scheduled for Wednesday, might seem like a rerun. Chris Wallace, the moderator and an anchor for Fox News, has chosen topics familiar from previous debates, including debt, immigration, foreign affairs, the economy and the Supreme Court. Notably missing is any mention of climate change, which was also almost ignored in the earlier debates. The fate of the planet has come up only in a single question asked by a member of the audience at the second debate, Michael D. McCurry, a chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, said that the moderator and the candidates, not the commission, set the questions. Irena Briganti, a spokeswoman for Fox News, referred questions back to the commission. Neither of the presidential campaigns responded to requests for comment. This lack of attention might lead some observers to conclude that Americans are unconcerned about climate change, but some surveys tell another story. Most Americans say they are interested in climate change, but they just do not hear much about it. In some ways, this presidential election cycle has brought climate change Hillary Clinton has a published on her website a detailed plan for dealing with climate and energy issues, and the topic was given prominence at the Democratic National Convention, which included But some of her positions, particularly her acceptance of natural gas as a “bridge” fuel from coal-burning power plants to renewable energy, are troubling to some in the environmental movement. Many ardent environmentalists argue that all fossil fuel extraction and use must stop immediately, a contingent that Donald J. Trump, going further than any previous presidential nominee, Yet the topic still seems oddly distant, and not just because scandal and calumny have overshadowed so many other issues. Despite the passion of activists and the issue’s undeniable importance — President Obama According to In Among registered voters, party affiliation seems to Anthony Leiserowitz, a research scientist at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences and the director of the climate change communication program there, referred to the lack of attention to the issue as an example of “ “When nobody talks about the issue, the clear signal is that this isn’t very important,” Dr. Leiserowitz said. “Ultimately, it comes down to one of the most precious resources on the planet, human attention.” He also said that when public figures such as President Obama, Mr. Obama’s focus on the issue, Dr. Leiserowitz said, is “part of the reason why global warming is No. 6 on the priority list among liberal Democrats and it wasn’t there before.” This problem may be illustrated through the online activities of the Clinton campaign, which has published 654 posts on Facebook since Aug. 1. Just five of those posts focused on climate change, and those have not generated a great deal of user engagement. According to an analysis by The New York Times, only one of the 100 posts that were most liked, shared and commented on mentions climate change: It offered a link to video of the appearance with Mr. Gore. Jeff Nesbit, who worked in the White House in 1991-92 under President George Bush and now works with the climate communications organization Sam Adams, the director of the United States climate initiative for the World Resources Institute, noted that while climate change was a strong part of Mrs. Clinton’s platform, it still posed a political danger. The liberal wing of her party finds her too incremental in her attitude toward ending fossil fuel dependence, and more conservative Democrats argue that a too-rapid shift to renewables will hurt coal and oil workers. “It’s not a risk-free issue for Clinton to campaign on, either from the left flank or the right flank,” he said. And sometimes, the question simply falls through the cracks. Lester Holt, the NBC anchor who moderated the first debate, did plan to ask about climate change, according to Mark Kornblau, a senior vice president for communications for NBC News and MSNBC. He dropped it, Mr. Kornblau said, because “the early part of the debate ran longer than we had hoped, because there were more interruptions and soliloquies than we expected.”