During a debate for who is going to represent the Democratic Party in the upcoming elections for United States President, the host asked the contesters a question. “What do you think is the greatest national treat to the United States?” The candidates answered with threats like: The spread of nuclear weapons and the risk of them falling into the wrong hands, cyber warfare, China, the unstable situation in the Middle East and one very surprising answer. Senator Bernie Sanders stated that the biggest national security issue is climate change.
It was quite the statement Sanders made by the national threat he chose and it was no wonder there were a lot of surprised reactions in audience. Because of a sharp comment made on another subject the debate went on in that direction, but the comments afterwards were all on Sanders’s answer to the national threat. It wasn’t a big surprise that Sanders would bring up climate change at one point in the debate, but that he brought it up as a national threat was quite the surprise for his competitors and the audience.
In later interviews Sanders would comment that he wanted to bring up the topic again in the American politic agenda because the last few years everyone was a bit “climate silence”. The subject was too sensitive to have a strong opinion in politics and always addressed as an economic, environmental and public health issue. Sanders is trying to find a way to make everyone realize that climate change is real, and not some other point on the political agenda like abortion or gun control where you can have an opinion on. By figuratively putting a gun to everyone’s head he made it clear that everyone has to do something about climate change and they can’t walk away from this issue again.
The answer Sanders gave to what he thinks is the greatest threat to America is probably not going to help him win the elections, not because climate change isn’t a big enough of an issue. It simply won’t hold up against the more direct threats his fellow politicians proposed. Like the threat of terrorism, or the nuclear program in Iran and North Korea. Nevertheless Sanders didn’t do everything in vain, because in the end he got what he wanted in the first place. Climate change is back on the agenda and everyone is talking about it.
It will be interesting to see how the debate on climate change will continue in the upcoming elections now it’s back on the agenda, and I will definitely be cheering for Sanders in the upcoming debates. If he doesn’t win I would like to thank him anyway, for addressing the importance of climate change again.