Climate activists call out climate silence via online protest
OAKLAND, Calif. — Thousands of climate activists will participate in an online protest against climate silence today, the date of the final presidential debate between President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney.
The online protest, organized by the climate accountability watchdog Forecast the Facts and environmental group Friends of the Earth Action, has prompted hundreds to change their social media profile pictures on Facebook and Twitter to images calling out the “climate silence” in the presidential election, reaching tens of thousands of people with the message: “End climate silence now.” The online action center also features shareable graphics about the lack of climate discussion in the debate thus far, and encourages activists to sign and share a petition to the candidates.
The online action center notes that the 2012 series of debates stand to be the first since 1984 to exclude climate change entirely as a topic. “2012 will go down as one of the hottest years in recorded history,” said Brad Johnson, campaign manager for Forecast the Facts, “and yet the candidates may ignore climate change in the debates for the first time in nearly thirty years.”
Media outlets have taken an interest in the climate silence, particularly after last week’s debate, during which Obama and Romney discussed energy for several minutes, dancing around the topic climate change, while promising to burn more coal, oil, and natural gas.
Now, in the hours before the final debate, activists are using their online presence to demand an end to the climate silence.
“It’s the last time the presidential candidates will stand face to face and explain what they’d each do as president,” said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth Action. “During the foreign policy debate tonight, we should hear how each candidate would address a serious national security issue: the global climate crisis. This day of action is to drive home the point that our members want to hear climate change discussed.”
Forecast the Facts’ and Friends of the Earth Action’s online action center can be found here: http://climatesilence.org/debate
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Contact: Blair Fitzgibbon, 202-503-6141, blair@fitzgibbonmedia.com