Climate change features heavily in the Democratic debate

Scientific findings often have significant policy implications, making science part of political debate. In recent years, however, scientific questions have sometimes been used as a way to determine whether a candidate is willing to pay attention to some combination of reality and subject matter expertise. This was certainly the case at a recent Republican debate, where candidates fielded questions about vaccine safety, of all things.

By contrast, science barely registered in last night's Democratic debate. Instead, a major focus was how to respond to climate change, with acceptance that it's actually happening shared by all the debaters. Four of the candidates—Lincoln Chafee, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Martin O’Malley—all made acting on climate change part of their opening statements. Sanders and O'Malley both named it as one of the leading national security threats. And, when asked which group he was most proud of angering, Chaffee responded with, "I guess the coal lobby."

All of them favored doing something about climate change, with most of the candidates being generally vague about their actual solutions. The two on the "extremes" of the argument were James Webb and O'Malley. Webb seemed willing to allow the changes taking place in the energy landscape to run their course with minimal intervention. He favors an "all of the above" energy strategy that includes a slow decline in the use of fossil fuels as nuclear and renewables are expanded. He also advocated for an international agreement to limit carbon emissions.