Friend,

For a baffling 12 years, debate moderators ignored the growing climate crisis.

But there's good news:

This fall -- thanks in large part to advocacy across the climate movement -- the crisis has come up two for two in the presidential and vice presidential debates. NBC's Kristen Welker, moderator of the third and final presidential debate, has already committed to asking about climate as one of six topics in tonight's debate. (And President Trump has already tried to thwart this plan to avoid talking about his disastrous record on climate.)

That's the good news. The bad news is that the first two debate moderators, Chris Wallace and Susan Page, framed their questions in the exact wrong ways. Moderators have an immense opportunity and duty: When they do their jobs well, American voters get to reap the benefits of being well-informed on their way to the ballot box. And when they don't? Well, we're living with those consequences now.

That's why we put together a video with NowThis to share the dos and don'ts of asking candidates about climate change. We can put pressure on the press to get this issue right, and we can educate ourselves to know the difference.

Watch and share our video with NowThis before the final presidential debate of 2020.

When Wallace brought up the climate crisis in the first debate, it took me by surprise -- especially since the topic was noticeably absent from his initial agenda. But it shouldn't have surprised me. As we look toward an election of immeasurable consequence to ourselves and our planet, we can -- and should -- expect better.

We should expect more questions, framed in ways that nod to the indisputable reality of the crisis -- and not as something to believe in or agree with. We should expect moderators to avoid setting candidates up with a false choice between good jobs and a clean environment. We should expect conversations that take the costs of inaction into account -- because they are far greater than the costs of action.

Watch and share our video with NowThis to spread the word about the importance of asking pointed questions about the climate crisis at tonight's debate.

Thanks,

Jamal Raad
Co-Founder and Campaign Director, Evergreen Action