Global Warming Becomes Major US Campaign Issue(2/3)

Rick Klein, a senior political reporter for ABC News, says it is now a major campaign issue for presidential candidates in the United States.

"We have seen this entire issue change over the last few years in a pretty extraordinary way, there really is not a major debate in Washington anymore over whether climate change is happening. It has moved to what we are going to do about it."

Gregg Easterbrook is a senior editor of The New Republic Magazine and writes frequently about politics and the environment.

Easterbrook argues the next president should favor legislation putting a price on greenhouse emissions to give inventors the financial incentive to create cost-effective solutions to global warming.

"I think in the coming election everybody is going to say that they are in favor of action on climate change. I don't see any candidate who won't say that. The question will be whether they favor a substantive reform or some kind of symbolic action."

At a recent forum at the Brookings Institution, policy advisers to some of the major presidential candidates agreed on the importance of global warming as a campaign issue, saying it plays a role in environmental considerations, economic development and national security.