In the previous Democratic debate, Sanders named climate change as the biggest security threat. There was a question of whether he’d still stand by that tonight, given all that has happened in Paris. Early in the debate, it was clear he not only still believes it, but is willing to explain why. “Climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism,” he said, explaining it meant people “struggling over limited amounts of water” and “limited amounts of land.”
And Sanders’s point makes sense at a lot of levels—climate change is no less a threat than it was a few days ago. Climate change does cause more death and destruction, just because of the sheer scale of the global impacts. President Barack Obama has said so himself, and the numbers justify the claim.