Hey everyone!
We’re now days away
from an important presidential election. You’ve watched them debate. You’ve
seen them rally. What you probably haven’t witnessed is either candidate speak
to issues of the environment, except for a brief question by beloved Ken Bone of course! Fortunately, both
candidates were recently interviewed on these issues by www.ScienceDebate.org, so
we can still gauge and compare their stances and knowledge. In this blog I do
just that! Using this
Presidential Science Debate 2016 interview, I have selected
8 questions that relate specifically to the environment and public health. To assess the quality of each candidate’s
response in the least biased manner, I generated a ranking system through which
I scored each response by Trump and Clinton according to 6 separate criteria.
Such criteria are described below, and the results are plotted in a bar graph
for simple interpretation.
Scoring Criteria
Scoring was
dichotomous. That is, candidates received either a “1” or a “0” in each of 6 categories, depending on their response.
Understanding of Topic
1 = candidate conveyed
a good understanding of the topic, 0 = if not
Response Length
1 = only if response
was twice the length of opponent’s response, 0 = if not
Concrete Goals
1 = candidate described
specific/quantifiable goals, 0 = if not
Provided Solution
1 = candidate provided
some sort of solution to the issue at hand, 0 = if not
Scientific Accuracy
1 = candidate’s
response was scientifically accurate, 0 = if not
Avoided Vague Language
1 = candidate used
strong language such as “will” or “shall” in describing goals, 0 = candidate
used soft or vague language such as “should” or “can”
The Results
As shown above, Clinton out scored Trump in all issues
relating to public health and the environment. However, no issue separated the
candidates’ scores more than climate change. While Clinton conveyed a sound
understanding of the issue and the measures needed and proposed by experts to
mitigate climatic impacts, Trump conveyed an overall lack of understanding of
climate change and perception of its importance. To see where each candidate
was penalized according to my scoring criteria, please see the table below
(zeros are left blank).
As you can see, three common criteria penalized Trump, including
1) understanding of topic, 2) response length, and 3) concrete goals. Put into
a single sentence, Trump’s responses were mostly very short, vague, and
failed to convey an understanding of the topics. On average Clinton’s responses
were a whopping 4.5 times longer than Trumps. By contrast,
Clinton appears to understand these issues quite well and has taken the steps
to formulate concreted goals relating to their solutions. In reviewing this Presidential
Science Debate 2016 interview, it is therefore difficult to conclude anything
but Clinton as the stronger candidate on issues of public health and the environment.
Given the differences between the candidates on these issues, I shall conclude with a bit of my own opinion. The
issue of climate change is particularly alarming as it relates to Trump’s
demonstration of knowledge, understanding, and lack of proposed mitigation policies.
Refuting climate change is refuting what 97% of climatologists are telling us.
If you visited 100 doctors and 97 of them said you had the flu, would you still
question whether you had the flu?? It is time to take this issue seriously. It
is imperative to have a U.S. president who takes climate change seriously. The
issue is not one of the environment exclusively, but one of human health as
well. Trump appears to overlook this.
If you think that my analysis could be flawed by bias, I
urge you to read on. I have provided a summary of each candidates response to all
8 interview questions. I think you'll conclude that my analysis was quite fair. You will notice my summaries of each candidate’s
response are not equal in length. That is, I often summarize Clinton’s response
using more text. This is because I’ve taken great care to write summaries that
reflect the actual lengths of each candidate’s response. Yes, I did a Microsoft
“word count” on each answer! So, if one candidate’s answer was twice as long as
the other’s, then my summary of their response was twice as long. This was to
give you the most unbiased and accurate reflection of their true answers. If you don’t want a summary and wish to read
the full interview, click the
Presidential Science Debate 2016. Note
that I didn’t provide the actual questions below, but rather the topic headers,
which is sufficient to understand their responses.
Response Summaries
1. Climate Change
Clinton
- The science of climate change is clear
- Climate change is an urgent threat
- Will work to slash greenhouse gas pollution
- Set 3 specific energy goals to be achieved within 10 years
of taking office
- Generate half of electricity from clean sources, with half a
billion solar panels installed by the end of first term.
- Cut energy waste in American homes, schools, hospitals and
offices by a third and improve American manufacturing efficiency and pollution.
- Reduce American oil consumption by a third through cleaner
fuels and more efficient cars, boilers, ships, and trucks.
Trump
- There is still much that needs to be investigated in the
field of “climate change.”
- Perhaps our limited financial resources should be focused on
issues of water, infectious disease, and food, along with developing alternative
energy sources.
2. Biodiversity
Clinton
- Conserving biodiversity is essential to maintaining our
quality of life.
- Climate change, pollution, habitat destruction,
unsustainable management practices, introduction of invasive species and other
forces pose serious threats to biodiversity.
- Will work to double the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants
program to help states, tribal nations, and local communities act earlier to
conserve wildlife before they become threatened or endangered.
- Will establish an American Parks Trust Fund to scale up and
modernize how we protect and enhance our natural treasures, and to better
protect wildlife habitat across the country.
- Will work collaboratively with other nations to end
trafficking in wildlife and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing that
threatens our oceans
Trump
- There will be shared governance of our public lands and we
will empower state and local governments to protect our wildlife and fisheries.
- Laws that tilt the scales toward special interests must be
modified to balance the needs of society with the preservation of our valuable
living resources. Will bring all
stakeholders to the table to determine the best approach to setting that balance.
3. Energy
Clinton
- Make America a 21st century clean energy superpower.
- Rejects notion that the economy, environment, and national
security can’t go hand in hand.
- Defend, implement, and extend smart pollution and efficiency
standards, including the Clean Power Plan and standards for cars, trucks, and
appliances that are already helping clean our air, save families money, and
fight climate change.
- Invest in clean energy infrastructure, innovation,
manufacturing and workforce development to make the U.S. economy more
competitive and create good-paying jobs and careers.
- Ensure the fossil fuel production taking place today is safe
and responsible and that areas too sensitive for energy production are taken
off the table.
- Expand clean energy production on public lands and waters
tenfold within a decade.
- Cutting billions of wasteful tax subsidies to oil and gas
companies.
- Cut methane emissions across the economy and create strong
standards for reducing leaks.
Trump
- It should be the goal of the American people and their
government to achieve energy independence as soon as possible.
- Obtaining energy independence should include exploring wind,
solar, nuclear and bio-fuels.
4. Public Health
Clinton
- Despite recent major events like contaminated drinking water
in Flint, Michigan, the spread of Zika virus, and the continuing need to
address HIV, we are not currently investing in public health preparedness and
emergency response the way we should.
- Will create a Public Health Rapid Response Fund, with consistent,
year-to-year budgets, to better enable the Centers for Disease Control, the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, state and local public health departments, hospital systems, and other
federal agencies to quickly and aggressively respond to major public health
crises and pandemics.
- Will ensure that our government has strong leadership and is
organized to better support and work with people on the ground facing public
health challenges.
- Must focus on boosting our preparedness for biological
threats and bioweapons, supporting research for new diagnostic tests and
vaccines for emerging diseases, building capacity in public health departments,
etc.
Trump
- We cannot simply throw money at public health institutions
and assume that the nation will be well served.
- Must focus on assessing where we need to be as a nation and
then applying resources to those areas where we need the most work.
- Our efforts to support research and public health
initiatives will have to be balanced with other demands for scarce resources.
5. Water
Clinton
- Invest in infrastructure and work with states,
municipalities, and the private sector to modernize water systems and provide
all Americans access to clean, safe drinking water.
- The federal government must become a better partner in
supporting state and locally-led efforts to improve water security.
- Create a coordinated, multi-agency Western Water Partnership
to help fund water efficiency, consideration, and infrastructure modernization
projects across the region, including significant new investments in water
reuse and reclamation.
- Establish a new Water Innovation Lab for better water
efficiency and treatment solutions.
Trump
- Invest in our fresh water infrastructure to ensure access to
affordable fresh water solutions.
- Explore all options to include making desalinization more
affordable and work to build the distribution infrastructure.
6. Nuclear
Clinton
- Nuclear power accounts for over 60% of our zero carbon power
generation and is an important tool for meeting climate change goals.
- Will increase research, development and deployment of
advanced nuclear power.
- Must also invest in the security of our nuclear materials at
home, and improve coordination between federal, state, and local authorities.
- Must seek to reduce the amount of nuclear material worldwide
– working with other countries to minimize the use of weapons-grade material
for civil nuclear programs.
Trump
- Nuclear power can be made safer and is a valuable source of
energy that should be part of an all-the-above program for providing power for
America long into the future.
7. Vaccines
Clinton
- Will protect child health in American and the globe through
use of vaccinations and vaccine science.
- The recent measles outbreaks in California’s Marin and
Orange counties remind us that we cannot be complacent with our own nation’s
vaccine policies.
- Will work closely with talented physicians, nurses, and
scientists in U.S. Public Health Service to speak out and educate parents about
vaccines.
- We need to engage stakeholders across industry, non-profits,
foundations, and government to spur the development of a new generation of
vaccines.
Trump
- Should educate public on the values of a comprehensive
vaccination program.
8. Ocean Health
Clinton
- Our coastal and ocean resources play a critical role in
providing nutritious food, good livelihoods, and critical storm protection for
our nation.
- With about 40 percent of our nation’s population living in
coastal counties, 1.8 million Americans making their livelihood from fisheries,
and 3 billion people globally dependent on the oceans for a major portion of
their protein, we cannot afford to ignore the health of our oceans.
- Will continue to recover and rebuild U.S. fish stocks by
making sound management decisions based on the best available science.
- Will work with our industry, and other countries, to
implement strong traceability standards for our seafood from bait to plate.
- Will work collaboratively across government, academia, and
industry to build solutions that keep our waters clean, our coastal and ocean
resources healthy, and our communities thriving.
Trump
- Work with Congress to establish priorities on how to
allocate fiscal resources.
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Shahir Masri
Doctor of Science
Environmental Health Science
