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By Monday night, the debate about "climate silence" was in full voice. Al Gore weighed in, tweeting during the course of the debate: "Where is global warming in this debate? Climate change is an urgent foreign policy issue."The Green party's presidential candidate, Jill Stein, who went so far as to label Obama a climate change denier in an interview with the Guardian for his failure to discuss the issue on the campaign trail.Other commentators argued allowances should be made for Obama's failure to discuss climate on the campaign trail, and his middling support for environmental concerns while in the White House.Since the rise of the Tea Party conservatives in 2010, energy and climate change have emerged as among the most contentious issues dividing Republicans and Democrats.

elow you can see my two-slide Powerpoint explanation for the presidential debates’ resounding #climatesilence (that’s the Twitter hashtag for the failed push to get global warming on the debate agenda). Try to find slide one — depicting the online tussle over climate science and policy — within slide two, which places the first issue in the flow of the moment’s news (via the fascinating newsmap.jp Web site):

Environment International One Guy With A Marker Just Made The Global Warming Debate Completely Obsolete

To help the candidates answer a “what will you do about the climate” question, the Presidential Climate Action Project will release the latest of its reports next week on what the President and his Administration can do, with or without Congress.  Among its proposals will be how the next Administration can launch America’s deliberate and historic transition to an advanced energy economy. The bottom line is this: The American people are finding they can’t run and can’t hide from the insidious impacts of global warming. Political candidates should not be allowed to hide from the issue, either.

As I write this, President Obama and Governor Romney are preparing for their final pre-election debate in Boca Raton. Though Governor Romney has used climate change as joke material, it is no laughing matter in Florida, a place that has been called "ground zero when it comes to sea level rise." More than 120 city and county officials, scientists and concerned citizens are calling on the candidates to discuss their policies on this issue, so it's safe to assume that both candidates are rehearsing a response to the climate question.

Climate and Security 101: Why the U.S. National Security Establishment Takes Climate Change Seriously April 25, 2012 by Francesco Femia & Caitlin Werrell In a 2007 report by the CNA Military Advisory Board, General Gordon R. Sullivan stated: “People are saying they want to be perfectly convinced about climate science projections…But speaking as a soldier, we never have 100 percent certainty. If you wait until you have 100 percent certainty, something bad is going to happen on the battlefield.” The national security establishment in the United States, including the U.S. military and the U.S. intelligence community, understand that climate change is a national security threat, and that we cannot wait for 100% certainty before acting to mitigate and adapt to its effects. But not only do they understand it, they plan for it – considering it’s implications in strategic documents like the Quadrennial Defense Review, and setting up an office within the CIA called the Center for Climate Change and National Security. But why? Why do those organs of government that the public normally associates with fighting wars, devote time and effort to an issue that is branded as hogwash by many on the right of the political spectrum, and the exclusive domain of environmental activists on the left? The simple answer: climate change is, actually, a national security threat.

I see climate silence as a failure of the mainstream media; a politico-media complex too enthralled by the story lines pitched to them by the campaigns to force either to address an infinitely pressing issue that falls outside its comfort zone. There were no efforts at all to examine the candidates' positions on climate policy in light of the record drought and heat temps, to press either for substantive answers. Climate silence is a product of failed leadership, to be sure, but also of our professional information gatherers and storytellers.

Elegy for a Country’s Seasons