Basically, Palin agreed that climate change is occurring and must be addressed, but in trying to step around her previous comments about global warming not being “man-made,” she said that human activities could be partially responsible along with “the cyclical temperature changes on our planet.” But then she said she didn’t want to “argue about the causes. What I want to argue about is, how are we going to get there to positively affect the impacts?”
In his response, Biden pointed out that it’s hard to find solutions to a problem if you don’t know what’s causing it: “If you don't understand what the cause is, it's virtually impossible to come up with a solution,” Biden said. “We know what the cause is. The cause is man-made. That's the cause. That's why the polar ice cap is melting.”
Both Biden and Palin said that they and their presidential running mates favor placing caps on carbon emissions.
Biden-Palin 2008 VP Debate FAQ Index:
- How Do Biden and Palin Differ on Climate Change?
- How Do Biden and Palin Differ on ANWR, Offshore Drilling and Renewable Energy?
- Where Does Biden Really Stand on Clean Coal?
- Why Do Biden and Palin Disagree About the 2005 Energy Bill?
- Where Do Biden and Palin Disagree on Subsidies and Tax Breaks for Oil Companies?
- Where Do Biden and Palin Line Up on a Windfall Profits Tax for Oil Companies?
- What Can Pro-Environment Voters Learn from the Biden-Palin Debate?
