Vice-presidential candidates for US Election 2020, Democratic Kamala Harris and Republican Mike Pence engaged in a war of words over the government’s handling of climate change and wildfires.
Vice-presidential debate mediator Susan Page asked Pence whether he believed that man-made climate change has made wildfires and hurricanes worse, and in response, the Republican said that he was proud of the administration’s record on the environment and conservation.
“The climate is changing. The issue is what’s the cause and what do we do about it?”, he said, adding that President Donald Trump has made a “commitment” to climate conservation. “The air is historically clean,” he added.
Pence said that while Trump will put America first, Biden will go back to the Paris Climate Accord and hurt the US economy with his focus on clean energy.
Responding to Pence’s attack, Kamala Harris talked about how her home state California was burning, Gulf of Mexico was hit by raging hurricanes, and the midwest was flooded.
“This administration took the word science off the website,” Harris said, adding that a pattern with this administration was seen wherein they don’t believe in science.
Harris was referring to Trump’s controversial remark questioning the science of climate change. ‘It’ll start getting cooler. You just watch… I don’t think science knows, actually,” he said at a wildfire briefing in California.
The Democratic candidate promised that Biden will deal with climate change as well as create jobs.
