Charles Blow had a very interesting op-ed column in the New York Times today entitled “all atmospherics, no climate.” The op-ed focused on the graph shown below, generated from survey data by the Pew Research Center, which describes the percentage of Americans who think the issues of protecting the environment, and dealing with the energy problem should be top priorities for the president and Congress.

Blow points out that of the 2,372 questions posed by the moderators (primarily national TV anchors of major corporations), only 8 questions asked mentioned global warming or climate change.

So here we have one of the most important problems of the day, and it is not being discussed by any of the presidential candidates. There are many reasons for this. It is in the best interests of the network to achieve high ratings, and questions that are most titillating and tend to put the candidates on the defensive help steer toward this goal. The candidates play into this as a way of attacking the personal qualities of their opponents, rather than risk discussing problems and issues that might reveal an inability to deal with “real problems.” It doesn’t really matter why. It is as it is.

I think an interesting reformat of presidential debates would be select senior high school or college students as the moderators, and suggest that they ask questions related to the major issues facing us today: the environment, education, the economy, the war in Iraq & Afghanistan, and jobs. There is very good evidence why this would be a good strategy.

Andrew Revkin, in one of his blog posts, discussed the research done by Mathew LaClair, a high school senior in Kearny, NJ who criticized the way authors of high school text on American Government presented the issue of global warming. Mathew contacted the Center for Inquiry and they in turn wrote a blistering critique of the text, based on his initial research. As a result, the publisher is taking a careful look at the book, not only its treatment of global warming, but other topics as well. Point made. High school students can show more intellect and wisdom than many of the moderators we’ve seen participating in the presidential debates.

Some resources that you might start with if you were to role play this idea in your classroom:

Dot Earth: Andrew C. Revkin’s Weblog about the Environment
Environmental Issues
Education
Georgia State University Economic Forecasting Center
Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce
War in Afghanistan
War in Iraq