POLL CLOSED: How Important Are Climate/Environment Questions in a Presidential Debate? View Results

(EnviroNews Polls) — Well, it’s happened again. That is, another presidential debate has flown by without a single substantive question about either the environment or climate change. It certainly isn’t the first time, and likely won’t be the last. The culprit moderators this time around: CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Martha Raddatz.

While the environment and climate change may not be the top issues on every voter’s list regarding what qualifies a candidate to become president of the United States, those topics are certainly of high importance to tens of millions of voters. Still, not a peep was uttered on these topics by these two journalist-moderators.

Cooper started off the event with fireworks, going right for Trump’s political jugular, and rightly so, when he grilled the candidate about the simply baffling admissions revealed by a red “hot” Access Hollywood portable mic just hours before. But over the next 80 or so minutes of the debate, not a single question was asked about climate change — an issue many of the world’s leading scientists have repeatedly said is the greatest threat facing humanity.

It surely would have made for an interesting topic since Trump had said earlier that climate change was a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive — a view that sits in stark contrast to Hillary Clinton’s recorded statements on the subject.

Only in the second to last question was an inquiry posed on the topic of “energy policy,” and even that was delivered from an economical position — not from an environmental vantage point.

“What steps will your energy policy take to meet our energy needs, while at the same time remaining environmentally friendly and minimizing job loss for fossil power plant workers?” inquired a man named Ken Bone from the audience to the two candidates.

While Trump said Obama’s policy and the EPA were a “disgrace,” Clinton pointed the finger back at Trump for purchasing steel “illegally dumped” in the U.S., and then constructing buildings with it — putting U.S. steel companies and workers out of business. To Clinton’s credit she did at least mention the words “climate change” (once) by saying as part of her response, “So I have a comprehensive energy policy, but it really does include fighting climate change, because I think that is a serious problem.” Still, neither of the candidates’ responses addressed climate or environmental concerns in any kind of substantive manner. Perhaps the subject was just not considered entertaining enough to make the cut of questions on the moderators’ roster.

Considering the myriad issues facing Americans today, we put it to you, our readers and viewers to decide: Just how important are environmental and climate change questions in a presidential debate? Please cast your official vote via Twitter of Facebook in the polls just below.

VIEW ENVIRONEWS POLL RESULTS FROM THE FIRST AND SECOND PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES, AS WELL AS THE VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE, IN THE LINKS BELOW

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