huge

Americans have had a HUGE couple of weeks what with both major political parties holding their conventions back-to-back. Here at HURRY UP PLEASE, we held our breaths waiting to hear the candidates’ plans for our nation’s climate change efforts. Well, we both turned blue and started to go faint until our autonomic nervous systems vetoed the breath-holding plan. Now that it’s all over, we can see how wise our autonomic nervous systems were.

Here are word clouds based on the candidates’ acceptance speeches, courtesy of The National Constitution Center:

The candidates talked a little about change (both mentioned “change” exactly 7 times), but precious little of that change talk was about the climate. Trump didn’t mention climate change at all. Clinton mentioned it twice, saying, “I believe in science. I believe that climate change is real and that we can save our planet while creating millions of good-paying clean energy jobs.” She also said, “I’m proud that we shaped a global climate agreement—now we have to hold every country accountable to their commitments, including ourselves.” Nice thoughts, but hardly a plan for how handle the disruption that climate change will bring.

Regardless of whether the candidates talk about it or not, our changing climate has HUGE plans for us; perhaps we ought to make some plans of our own.