Candidates' positions are categorized as Pro (Yes), Con (No), Not Clearly Pro or Con, or None Found. Candidates who have changed their positions are listed as Now their most recent position. Candidates are listed by party and in alphabetical order by last name. Black & white photos indicate candidates who have withdrawn or who no longer meet our criteria for inclusion.
Are humans substantially responsible for global climate change?
Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in "Meet Gary Johnson, the GOP's Invisible Candidate" on June 15, 2011, available at www.rollingstone.com:
"I accept the fact that there is global warming and I accept the fact that it's man caused. That said, I am opposed to cap and trade. I'm a free market guy when it comes to the clean environment the number-one factor when it comes to the clean environment is a good economy." June 15, 2011 Gary Johnson
Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in the Oct. 7, 2007 "Barack Obama's Plan to Make America a Global Energy Leader," posted on his 2008 election campaign website:
"Global warming is real, is happening now and is the result of human activities. The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years. Glaciers are melting faster; the polar ice caps are shrinking; trees are blooming earlier; oceans are becoming more acidic, threatening marine life; people are dying in heat waves; species are migrating, and eventually many will become extinct. Scientists predict that absent major [green house gas] emission reductions, climate change will worsen famine and drought in some of the poorest places in the world and wreak havoc across the globe.." Oct. 7, 2007 Barack Obama
Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in his 2010 book No Apology:
"I believe that climate change is occurring - the reduction in the size of global ice caps is hard to ignore. I also believe that human activity is a contributing factor. I am uncertain how much of the warming, however, is attributable to man and how much is attributable to factors out of our control... Internationally, we should work to limit the increase in emissions in global greenhouse gases, but in doing so we shouldn't put ourselves in a disadvantageous position that penalizes American jobs and economic growth." 2010 Mitt Romney
Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in a Dec. 12, 2011 article "White House Role in Blocking Climate Progress 'Unforgivable'," available at www.jillstein.org:
"Current levels of fossil fuel use are already heading us toward indisputably catastrophic levels of global warming. Yet with emissions rising faster and faster every year, the Obama Administration has shockingly pushed an agreement to do nothing before 2020, ensuring that the critical time window for saving the climate will be missed. That the White House is responsible for this is unforgivable.
People are already dying from climate change. Extreme weather changes have already inflicted tens of billions in damage. This is a mere hint of the far greater impacts we are already on track for. The clear solution to the growing worldwide economic crisis is to invest in a sustainable fossil fuel-free economy." Dec. 12, 2011 Jill Stein
Michele Bachmann, US Representative (R-MN), stated the following in an interview with WWTC 1280 AM on Mar. 21, 2009:
"The science is on our side on this one, and the science indicates that human activity is not the cause of all this global warming. And that in fact, nature is the cause, with solar flares, etc…" Mar. 21, 2009 Michele Bachmann
Herman Cain, Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and Chairman of Godfather's Pizza, stated the following during an interview on the Mark Levine Show on June 14, 2011, available on You Tube:
"Manmade global warming is poppycock... In other words, I don't believe in it. Look, if people look at the real data, the climate had varied ever since we've known that the planet is here. And we know that those scientists who tried to concoct the science to say we had a hockey stick global warming and they were busted because they manipulated the data. No! This manmade global warming is not a crisis." June 14, 2011 Herman Cain
Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives (R-GA), provided the following statement in the article, "Setting the Record Straight: Newt's Positions on the Issues and His Record," available at www.newt.org (accessed Nov. 21, 2011):
"Newt does not believe there is a settled scientific conclusion about whether industrial development has dramatically contributed to a warming of the atmosphere." Nov. 21, 2011 Newt Gingrich
[Editor's Note: Prior to the Not Clearly Pro or Con comment above, accessed on Nov. 21, 2011, Gingrich was Pro to our question as evidenced by his Feb. 22, 1989 co-sponsoring of H.R. 1078, The Global Warming Prevention Act, which said in part:]
"The Congress finds that--
(1) the Earth's atmosphere is being changed at an unprecedented rate by pollutants resulting from human activities, inefficient and wasteful fossil fuel use, and the effects of rapid population growth in many regions;
(2) global warming will accelerate the present sea level rise and thereby threaten to inundate low-lying coastal lands and islands, reduce coastal water supplies by increased salt water intrusion, and potentially increase the frequency of tropical cyclones, floods, and storm surges;
(3) global warming imperils human health and well-being and is likely to diminish food security and change the distribution and seasonal availability of fresh water resources;
(4) global warming will jeopardize prospects for sustainable development and reduction of poverty, accelerate extinction of animal and plant species upon which human survival depends, and alter yield, productivity, and biological diversity of natural and managed ecosystems, particularly forests;." Feb. 22, 1989 Newt Gingrich
Jon Huntsman, former Governor of Utah, stated the following during an Aug. 21, 2011 interview on the ABC News program This Week:
"The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party -- the anti-science party, we have a huge problem. We lose a whole lot of people that would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012. When we take a position that isn't willing to embrace evolution, when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said, what the National Academy of Sciences has said about what is causing climate change and man's contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science and, therefore, in a losing position." Aug. 21, 2011 Jon Huntsman
Ron Paul, US Representative (R-TX), stated the following in his 2011 book Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues that Affect Our Freedoms:
"You can count me among the global-warming skeptics. I gather that my ranks have grown enough so that the fear of global warming is now replaced with a more generalized fear of 'climate change,' covering all empirical contingencies...
Why do so many fall for propaganda and pseudoscience that this whole movement spews out? It's out of fear. It took quite a few years to convince the majority of Americans to accept the idea that CO2 was a poison whose production caused global warming of crisis proportion...
Most Americans have been bamboozled into believing that all reputable scientists believe in global warming and that CO2 emissions are a major problem. The truth is there are just as many and even more qualified scientists refuting the sketchy and questionable evidence regarding global warming...
Climate change has been going on for millions of years." 2011 Ron Paul
Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, is quoted as having said the following in the Aug. 17, 2011 ABC News website article '"In New Hampshire, Perry Calls Global Warming 'A Scientific Theory that Has Not Been Proven' ":
"I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling in to their -- to their projects. And I think we're seeing almost weekly or even daily scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man made global warming is what is causing the climate to change. Yes, our climate's changed, they've been changing ever since the Earth was formed.
I don't think from my perspective that I want America to be engaged in spending that much money on still a scientific theory that has not been proven and from my perspective is more and more being put into question." Aug. 17, 2011 Rick Perry
Buddy Roemer, former Governor of Louisiana, stated the following in an interview with Skeptics Guide to Government, available at www.youtube.com (accessed Oct. 26, 2011):
"I think the globe is warming – beyond scientific curiosity now it’s a scientific fact. The cause of it is probably more than one thing. There are cycles in the Earth’s history where temperature rises and falls. We might be on one of those cycles. But I don’t think there is any question that man’s effect on his environment is also a factor. So we need to be commonsensical. We need to be – we need to plan out how to ameliorate, how to diffuse man’s effect. Maybe man has nothing to do with it. How can we take the risk?" Oct. 26, 2011 Buddy Roemer
Rick Santorum, former US Senator (R-PA), stated the following during a June 8, 2011 interview with Rush Limbaugh, "The Rick Santorum Interview," available at www.rushlimbaugh.com:
"I believe the earth gets warmer and I also believe the earth gets cooler, and I think history points out that it does that and that the idea that man, through the production of CO2 — which is a trace gas in the atmosphere, and the manmade part of that trace gas is itself a trace gas — is somehow responsible for climate change is, I think, just patently absurd...
To me this is an opportunity for the left to create — it’s really a beautifully concocted scheme because they know that the earth is gonna cool and warm. It’s been on a warming trend so they said, ‘Oh, let’s take advantage of that and say that we need the government to come in and regulate your life some more because it’s getting warmer.’...
It’s just an excuse for more government control of your life... and I’ve never been for any scheme or even accepted the junk science behind the whole narrative." June 8, 2011 Rick Santorum