By Kate Mishkin, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Climate change is real, it’s man-made and it doesn’t have to be political.
Those were some of the messages West Virginia students got from their elected leaders Tuesday morning in the middle of legislative interims, when House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, and Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, held a climate change conference.
For 45 minutes, the legislators fielded questions about the environmental and economic repercussions of climate change, and what students can do to fight it.
They also answered questions about how something like climate change — a scientifically-backed issue that affects everyone — has become so polarized. The two legislators sat side by side at the head of a long table, facing a laptop, where classrooms across the state called in.
“We don’t get together and talk about issues enough in a civil environment,” Hanshaw told the students.
“But I think having something like this, where two people from different parties can come together and talk about what they think about, is a good first step,” Hansen said. …
