We must give the President the freedom to combat global warming in the Blue States. How long can this go one before NYC is covered with water:
It's hard to know how much impact New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's comments about climate change after Hurricane Sandy had on the US election. It's easy to overestimate that sort of thing, but President Barack Obama's victory in several States was so razor-thin that Mr Bloomberg's last-minute intervention may have been decisive. What's crystal clear is that Mr Obama himself didn't want to talk about it during the campaign.
Mr Bloomberg, responding to the devastation he saw in New York City, laid it on the line. “Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not have been the result of it, the risk that it may be...should be enough to compel all elected leaders to take immediate action.”
The New York Mayor, a former Republican, did not hesitate to assign praise and blame: “Over the past four years, President Barack Obama has taken major steps to reduce our carbon consumption, including setting higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks. Mitt Romney, too has a history of tackling climate change...He couldn't have been more right. But since then, he has reversed course.”
He said this only five days before the election, in the immediate aftermath of a national calamity that may well have been climate-related. So did Mr Obama pick up the ball and run with it? Certainly not. Apart from a one-liner about how climate change “threatens the future of our children” in a single speech, he remained stubbornly silent.
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