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In June, it was the derecho. In July, there were flash floods. In August, Tropical Storm Isaias brought more flooding. And this September was the ninth warmest in recorded history. For those of us who call Pennsylvania home, climate change isn’t a distant threat. It’s already here — and those were just a few of the extreme weather events we experienced in 2020.
Across the country, communities like ours are feeling the impact of increasingly intense climate disasters, during a year when we’re facing an unprecedented public health crisis with COVID-19. As we learn to navigate these new extremes, it’s incumbent that Pennsylvania voters are given substantive opportunities to ask tough questions and hear more about how Donald Trump and Joe Biden would tackle the mounting climate crisis — especially when one side in particular flings a series of lies and misinformation about the other. (It’s the one that continues to host COVID super spreader events with little to no regard for any safety precautions.)
Yes, it’s been encouraging that climate questions have been asked in record-breaking amounts of time in the first presidential and vice presidential debates, giving Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the opportunities they have wanted to discuss climate change on a national stage. Yet, the questions we’ve seen so far have only focused on basic information, with little follow-up, and have ignored regular harms facing Pennsylvanians, like heat stroke, pollution-related illnesses and money spent repairing flood damages. (Really, we’re going to spend time confirming whether or not you believe in science?)
With Joe Biden’s upcoming town hall right here in Philadelphia on Thursday, and Donald Trump doing his own the same night, it’s possible for even more progress to be achieved in the ongoing conversation on climate action. And voters and the candidates have the power to do so by speaking up on climate in these forums.
Rather than yet another baseless attack on fracking or a question confirming who believes that climate change is real or manmade, we could be talking about how temperatures in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods of Philadelphia can be as much as 22 degrees hotter than wealthier neighborhoods and how we’re going to rectify this injustice.
Joe Biden could be given the chance to bring up how climate change mitigation efforts need to be intentional in protecting low-income communities from “green gentrification” and how, if elected, he would make sure toxic emissions are reduced so that Black and Hispanic residents are not disproportionately harmed, which are addressed in his own Biden climate plan.
And instead of one more tired question framing the Green New Deal like a boogeymonster, let’s hear more about how Philadelphia already is ranked in the top 20 for clean energy jobs and what candidates would do to spur job growth in this promising sector — and how Trump’s war against clean energy has cost our country more than 1.1 million jobs.
Our future and our children’s futures are at stake this election. Given how apocalyptic 2020 has been already, it’s hard to fathom things getting worse. But they most certainly will if we don’t seize this moment to demand climate action — and that starts with asking candidates substantive questions about their plans.
Pennsylvania voters recognize this and are hungry for something more than a candidate being given only two minutes to answer, often with the bully-in-chief interjecting nonstop during that brief time.
One recent survey found that 60% of Pennsylvanians believe the President should do more to address climate change. And another found that Biden’s support grows his lead over Trump in Pennsylvania when voters are exposed to a balanced debate on the candidates’ climate plans.
The path to winning the White House will most likely need to include winning in Pennsylvania. With so much attention on The Keystone State, it’s a shame if we don’t talk more about one of the greatest threats in our lifetimes.
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Malcolm Kenyatta, a state representative from Philadelphia, represents the 181st legislative district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He serves on Climate Power's state-co chair advisory board.
