Not mentioned in any of the presidential debates -- the issue that most impacts the question of whether human civilization has a future. NYT's "Green Blog" on The Issue That Dare Not Speak Its Name:
Yet the presidential debates are now over, and not once did climate change surface explicitly as an issue. This campaign is the first time that has happened since 1988, and environmental groups – and environmentally minded voters – are aghast.
“By ignoring climate change, both President Obama and Governor Romney are telling the rest of the world that they do not take it seriously, and that America cannot be expected to act with the intensity and urgency needed to avert catastrophe,” Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth Action, said in a statement.
There was talk about energy in the debates -- mostly about who would increase our production of fossil fuels. It is true that Obama has explicitly mentioned climate change in a few speeches and has pushed for some small progress on the issue, such as higher mileage standards, but its absence from the debate is yet another symptom of our system's total dysfunction.