Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton used the hundreds of deaths resulting from Hurricane Matthew to underscore the threat posed by climate change to the nation, especially in Florida where she was campaigning on Tuesday.
“I will tell you this, it is the most important issue at stake in this election,” Clinton said in Miami, joined by former Vice President Al Gore, a major advocate on the issue.
“And if you need additional convincing, just remember what happened this week [when] Hurricane Matthew killed at least 26 people in our country, more than a thousand, as far as we know right now, in Haiti,” she said.
She added that North Carolina is still dealing with serious flooding from the hurricane and will be “for at least the rest of this week if not longer” because of massive flooding that she attributed to climate change.
Gore tweeted around the time of her speech: “Our planet can’t afford denial on climate or opposition to solutions. @HillaryClinton will work hard to solve the pressing issues we face.”
Clinton added that it is not just the big storms. In Miami, climate change has become a “daily reality.” The ocean is “bubbling up” from the sewers and there is flooding every day at high tide, she said Tuesday.
“Our next president will either step up” to confront the threat of climate change, “or we will be dragged backwards, and our whole future put at risk,” she said.
She said Republican nominee Donald Trump continues to wobble on the issue. During the first presidential debate he denied that he had called global warming a “hoax” created by the Chinese, but his tweet is still online for all to see, she pointed out.
Clinton said the nation cannot afford to send “climate deniers and defeatists” to the White House or Congress, and voters must elect officials who acknowledge the issue and work to address it.
