Environment Always Drives from the Backseat

Just a few weeks ago, many environmental groups pointed out that for the first time in decades, climate change wasn't mentioned at all during the American Presidential elections.

People still care about the environment – just not enough to talk about it.

But if we don’t talk about the environment, nothing happens. That’s the nature of our political systems in democracies like the United States of America, and here in Canada.

We see politicians beating their chests and yelling like savage gorillas on the evening news. We joke about the name calling and other occasional unprofessional blunders spoken by these seemingly wild beasts we elect into public office.

However, wild the media makes mockery of the people we freely elect to make our laws, spend our tax dollars, and plan for the future, politics is all about talk.

So when the environment doesn't get talked about at all during debates for what some call ‘the most powerful office in the free world,’ we should all be concerned.

The environment has traditionally been a backseat driver in political campaigns. Usually the environment is one of the key issues which all candidates, at all levels of government, discuss. 

Usually because the environment is cited in electioneering polls as an issue of interest to registered voters.

Environmental issues are usually raised quickly, and then forgotten in most political campaigns. They don’t have as much staying power as the other issues on the table – jobs, the economy, national security, and employment.

But at least the environment is talked about – it’s part of the political dialogue, making it part of the political process, and in turn, something which we know will be managed regardless of who wins the election.

This time around, who knows?

Environmental issues were not discussed much during the American Presidential election. 

Climate change – the biggest environmental issue facing all life on Earth – wasn't even mentioned.

The Keystone XL Pipeline was discussed – but the issue was more of national pride, and the financial cost involved, in having foreign oil from Canada being piped into the almighty USA. Environmental concerns were not the centre of this debate.

Has the environment been ejected from the back seat of political debate in North America and the free world?

If it has, we’re all going to suffer, because regardless of all the other issues, we all need our home – planet Earth – to survive.