MTV claims: ‘YOUNG CONSERVATIVES TO GOP ON CLIMATE: HELLO? ARE YOU LISTENING?’

The 2016 Republican platform briefly mentions climate change, if only to try to disarm it through a series of imperious sentences that roughly translate to PSSSSSH. “Climate change is far from this nation’s most pressing national security issue,” one reads. “This is the triumph of extremism over common sense, and Congress must stop it.” Another: “The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a political mechanism, not an unbiased scientific institution.” And we can’t forget: “The Environmental Protection Agency has rewritten laws to advance the Democrats’ climate change agenda.” These dismissals left no room to take the environment seriously in the platform.

“I thought the platform could have been worse,” Christian Berle, who does conservative outreach for the environmental nonprofit Defend Our Future, told MTV News. Berle went to the convention in Cleveland to support John Kasich but was also talking to people his age who might have been equally frustrated by the complete absence of climate change discussions onstage. Many young conservatives are trying to be optimistic when it comes to climate and the Republican Party, as it doesn’t seem there’s anywhere to go but up. “One of the unique gifts of the Christian community is hope, the unshakable belief that God is faithful to his promises,” says Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action.

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