With the presidential election right around the corner, candidates are beginning to discuss big topics in hopes to target different demographics of voters. Climate change, along with gun control and immigration, is always a main topic of interest.
Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and Ted Cruz all have separate views on climate change, which affected their endorsements from big oil companies which could’ve altered their campaign.
Bernie Sanders, a candidate who is popular among the younger generation, recognized that climate change is an issue that doesn’t get the attention that it needs. His campaign seems seems helped by his views–environmentalists are actually attracted to his viewpoint on the environment. Recently, “Friends of the Earth,” a national environmental group, gave an endorsement to Sanders’s campaign. Friends of the Earth is going to be happily helping his campaign by funding events and participating to show their support for his interest in helping the environment. Sanders also asked the Department of Justice for an investigation on Exxon, for denying the dangers of climate change. So the endorsements from big oil companies to Sanders are nonexistent.
Hillary Clinton also claims to make political changes that will target climate change. Her popularity hasn’t dwindled either. The League of Conservation Voters Action Fund was another environmental group that endorsed Clinton. She was always an advocate for combatting climate change. Clinton sponsored a bill that repeals subsidies to big oil companies, so companies like Exxon or BP are unlikely to support her.
Ted Cruz believes that human-induced climate change doesn’t exist. Maybe his beliefs are influenced by his wealth that the old companies have given him. His stock in oil and gas companies are worth up to $850,000 according to his financial disclosure forms. It makes sense that Cruz is reluctant to bash the companies that gave him so much money by stating that they damage the environment everyday. There were no comments from the companies Cruz invested stocks in.
Donald Trump is open about sharing his opinions that climate change is not real and isn’t an issue that the United States should be worried about. He was recently endorsed by celebrity and former governor Sarah Palin, whose interest in the Secretary of Energy position leads to claims that drilling for oil is one of her main goals.
From looking at candidates and who they are endorsed by, it is easy to come to a conclusion that when big oil companies endorse candidates, they are likely to state that climate change isn’t an issue that needs attention. The same can be said for the opposite: when candidates advertise their willingness to changes to reduce global warming, they are being endorsed by organizations with the same motives.
In a poll conducted by the NYTimes, Stanford University, and Resources for the Future (an environmental research group) it was found that 2/3 of Americans were more likely to vote for a presidential candidate if they were advocates for combatting climate change, and were less likely to support those who stated that climate change is
a hoax or denied evidence that claimed climate change was occurring.
To get the best campaign and the most interest from voters, presidential candidates recognize the facts of climate change and devote part of their interests to fighting global warming, because it is statistically proven to get them more support from the population.
