The third Democratic primary debate, at least for the first 90 minutes, wasn’t half-bad. The candidates were asked surprisingly tough questions by the ABC debate moderators, challenged to defend the blemishes on their records. They even turned the spotlight on one another to spur some entertaining, and useful, exchanges. Then debate moderator and Univision anchor Jorge Ramos tapped his cue cards and read the following bizarre question to Senator Cory Booker to kick off what would be the debate’s sole climate change portion:

“Let me ask you about the recent fires in Brazil. After the recent fires in the Amazon, some experts have suggested that eating less meat is one way to help the environment,” Ramos said. “You are a vegan since 2014—that’s obviously a personal choice—but President Trump and Brazil’s President [Jair] Bolsonaro are concerned that climate change regulations could affect economic growth. So should more Americans follow your diet?”

The question, once it had stopped swerving and dipping and landed on its final destination of framing the encroaching crisis around the question of bacon or no bacon, drew a round of laughter from both the crowd and from Booker. With the inquiry, ABC made clear just how serious the network was about investing time in the most pressing issue facing the nation and the globe: not at all. After months featuring dissatisfaction with the scant climate coverage in prior debates, criticism of the Democratic National Committee’s refusal to hold a dedicated climate debate, and exhaustion at CNN’s seven-hour town hall attempting to fill the gap, the third Democratic primary debate spent a grand total of seven minutes on the issue Democratic voters consistently rate as one of their top concerns in the 2020 elections.

To his credit, Booker, responding to the veganism query, answered the question that Ramos should have asked, calling out the consolidation of the agriculture industry and the subsequent contributions of factory farms to overall worldwide carbon emissions. But like the debate’s planners, Booker opted not to use his full time on climate change, shortening his response to go back to a previous question about foreign policy.



The remaining six minutes the debate devoted to climate change featured a handful of shining moments, but on the whole was another painful reminder of how sorely this election needs a serious presidential debate on this issue. Of the ten candidates, only six were prompted to speak on climate change, and that excluded two of the top three politicians, going by polling: Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden. Among those who were allowed to speak, former Congressman Beto O’Rourke and Senator Elizabeth Warren were the only two to offer specific goals for when they plan to have America at a net-zero carbon emissions. O’Rourke said halfway by 2030 and at net-zero by 2050, while Warren responded that she would aim to reach a carbon neutral status in all new buildings by 2028, in cars by 2030, and in electricity manufacturers by 2035.