My wife said something profound yesterday. She does that a lot, actually. She’s a therapist. She has a knack for human insight.
We were in our typical morning routine, propped up in bed with our iPads reading the news and checking Facebook. Staring at her iPad Sanderijn said, “Isn’t it strange that every time people ask one of the Republican candidates for president about climate change they answer ‘I don’t know … I am not a scientist.'”
She went on, “Why is it climate change is the one thing they feel they are not qualified to have an opinion on?” She thoughtfully added that these guys don’t seem to respond similarly when asked about other areas of policy.
Which got me thinking. Imagine a presidential candidate who says …
I don’t know about education policy because I am not a teacher.
I don’t know about foreign policy because I am not a diplomat.
I don’t know about military intervention because I am not a soldier.
I don’t know about tax policy because I am not a CPA.
I don’t know about crime and punishment because I am neither a policeman nor a judge.
I don’t know about health care policy because I am not a doctor.
I don’t know about moral values because I am not clergy. (ok, Mike Huckabee maybe but that’s whole different story).
Wouldn’t it be interesting if candidates showed the same humility on other policy issues that some candidates are showing on climate change?
Oh, and by the way, 97% of climate scientists believe that climate change is real and caused by human activity.