I’ve been watching the Democratic debate, hoping that there would be more discussion of climate change than there was in the Republican counterpart, and I am happy to report that this has certainly come true. Moderator Anderson Cooper asked each of the candidates what the most important national security threat was to our nation going forward, and two of the five candidates highlighted climate change. Governor O’Malley and Senator Sanders, only having about ten seconds to highlight the largest point of the national security segment, took part of this time, and Senator Sanders took all of his time, to discuss how climate change is more important than current military threats.

To think of how far the movement has come in such a short time is amazing. Since the turn of the century, given our military history, it would be practically unimaginable to think that a politician would place climate change over terrorism, or conventional military threats. Granted, talk is cheap until action is taken, but the fact that serious contenders for the Democratic nomination, and the Presidency, are willing to call climate change the most important national security threat, well that’s a good sign.