The scientific consensus is almost universal.

Climate change is an existential challenge for the U.S. and the rest of the world.

But it's almost an afterthought in President Trump's re-election campaign against former Vice President Joe Biden.

In their first acrimonious encounter billed as a debate, it sounded like this.

What do you believe about the science of climate change, sir?

I believe that we have to do everything we can to have immaculate air, immaculate water,

and do whatever else we can that's good.

You know, we're planting a billion trees, the billion tree project, and it's very exciting for a

lot of people.

Do you believe that human pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, contributes to the global warming

of this planet?

I think a lot of things do, but I think to an extent, yes.

We're not going to build plants that, in fact, are great polluting plants. But you're going to build the Green New Deal? Pardon me? Do you support the? No, I don't support the Green New Deal. Oh, you don't. Oh, well, that's a big statement. I support the bottom out. That means you just lost the radical left. I support the Biden plan that I put forward.

Okay.

That was a far cry from what voters heard when Biden and other Democrats

tackled the issue during the primary campaigns.

We talked with Leah Stokes, Assistant Professor of Politics at the Brenn School of Science and Management

at UC Santa Barbara.

Thanks so much for having me on.

Hard to determine exactly how something might have sounded if it had happened, but what would you have expected to hear if, in fact, it had been on the agenda?

Well, we had a Democratic primary early on where at least some of the questions in the debate focused on climate change.

And so we saw what candidates can say about these issues.

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