Our next President, people, could be a man who rejects the view of the scientific community that global warming is real and one of the greatest threats facing our planet, and says it's a hoax created by the Chinese.

It reminds us of South African President Thabo Mbeki, who rejected the scientific consensus that AIDs was caused by a virus and could be treated by drugs -- because he believed it was manufactured by the U.S. in military labs.

Conspiracy theories have consequences. Mbeki's denialism was directly responsible for the avoidable deaths of more than a third of a million people. Now we see the same magical thinking from the Donald.

Even as he was denying ever having said climate change was a Chinese hoax, a Tweet in which he said exactly that was being re-shared thousands of times. His campaign manager has since tried to walk this back, by arguing Donald Trump believes climate change is "naturally occurring," but not man-made. Please.

Trump - a man who embraces all manner of conspiracy theories - has repeatedly dismissed climate change as a "hoax" in easily-searchable Tweets, like this one from 2014 in which he said: "Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax!"

And he hasn't changed any of his policy positions. He still wants to tear up the Paris accord that nearly 200 nations committed to, and rescind President Obama's Climate Action Plan. He's named the most notorious climate denier in the country, Myron Ebell, to his transition team.

Clinton, on the other hand, is listening to the scientists who warn that if we don't take action to fight global warming, there will be more drought, floods and rising sea levels. Yet Trump's campaign manager told CNN this week that on the topic of climate change, "We don't know what Hillary Clinton believes, because nobody ever asks her."

Really? What about the global climate change and clean energy initiatives she supported as Secretary of State? "I think the science is real," Clinton said in Monday's debate. "And here's what we can do. We can deploy half a billion more solar panels. We can deploy enough clean energy to power every home. We can build a new modern electric grid. That's a lot of jobs."

Or, we can elect a president who denies the science like he did Obama's birth certificate, and reverses every positive step we've taken.

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