Here, have this calm and civilized existential threat scorecard for tonight’s vice-presidential debate

By Thomas Gaulkin, October 7, 2020

(Kamala Harris photo by Gage Skidmore via Creative Commons)

If you’re reading this, you probably already plan to watch tonight’s vice-presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris. Or maybe you’re deciding whether they’ll discuss anything worth listening to—a not unreasonable concern after the Trump-Biden spectacle last week (last week!).

Unlike Chris Wallace’s experience trying to control that first presidential debate, there’s a decent chance USA Today’s Susan Page will actually steer the candidates toward something resembling substantive discussion. For all his troubles, Wallace did manage to include climate change in his tattered list of questions—the first climate-related topic raised by a presidential debate moderator in 12 years—and we again urge Page and any future debate participants (if there are any) to address the following:

This year, record-breaking wildfires, storms, and ice-melt and rising temperatures have buttressed scientists’ warnings that the climate is changing due to human activity, and time is running out to take action to avert a planetary catastrophe. What role should the United States play?
With New START about to expire, a half-century of nuclear arms control efforts are nearing their end. What will you do to prevent a new nuclear arms race?
How will your administration address our allies’ diminishing trust in US commitments to international organizations and multilateral engagement?
The United States’ investment in science was the envy of the world for close to a century and helped make the US an economic and cultural leader. What role does science play in your policy?
What will you do to turn back the hands of the Doomsday Clock?

If you do choose to tune in, we recommend you keep track of how well things go with our updated vice-presidential debate existential threat scorecard (below). Who knows: Maybe someone will say something about the biggest dangers facing humanity that will justify the risks of watching another debate this election season.

As the coronavirus crisis shows, we need science now more than ever.

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