{"id":4021,"date":"2019-12-17T16:31:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T16:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/?p=4021"},"modified":"2019-12-19T16:50:32","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T16:50:32","slug":"us-senate-candidate-imagines-a-climate-change-ravaged-hellscape-in-a-new-ad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/2019\/12\/17\/us-senate-candidate-imagines-a-climate-change-ravaged-hellscape-in-a-new-ad\/","title":{"rendered":"US Senate Candidate Imagines a Climate Change-Ravaged Hellscape in a New Ad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CPR News<\/a><\/em>
by Sam Brasch<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some point in the not so distant future, a young girl in Colorado Springs can\u2019t go outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The temperature is 127 degrees Fahrenheit. Her father wears a hazmat suit and a gas mask as he builds a roof from emergency blankets. Her pregnant mother slams a radio crackling with warnings of massive tornadoes and dangerous air. Her parents argue until breathless in their makeshift shelter, trapped in a terrible future ravaged by climate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just hope we can see the sunshine again one day,\u201d she narrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This bleak scene isn\u2019t the opening of a new Mad Max movie. It\u2019s the hellscape Democrat Andrew Romanoff imagines in his first U.S. Senate campaign video, “Home.” The former state House speaker is betting a progressive stance on climate change can help him overcome a wide Democratic primary field \u2014 including former Governor John Hickenlooper \u2014 and defeat Republican U.S. Senator Cory Gardner next November. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe point of the spot is to say, ‘This is what lies ahead and, by the way, this is reality for a lot of folks on Earth today,’\u201d Romanoff said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 4-minute ad will run on major social media platforms. His team plans to spend $1,000 promoting the video on Facebook and YouTube. It won\u2019t run as a television spot, according to the campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video, produced by WIN Digital Media<\/a>, is the latest test of whether left-wing candidates can capitalize politically on <\/a>growing concerns about climate change.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his Senate campaign, Romanoff has embraced the so-called Green New Deal and in turn earned the endorsement of the Sunrise Movement<\/a>, a youth climate group advocating for the aggressive action on climate change. Meanwhile, Hickenlooper, who\u2019s far outpacing Romanoff in Democratic primary polls, has written an op-ed<\/a> criticizing the platform. His climate plan<\/a> focuses more on market-based solutions, like collecting a carbon tax and redistributing it to consumers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new ad puts the difference in the most dramatic terms possible. It ends with Romanoff taking direct aim at critics of more aggressive climate action: \u201cThose who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are already doing it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Max Boykoff<\/strong>, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and author of the recently published book “Creative (Climate) Communications,” said the new strategy comes with risks and benefits for Romanoff. Its success will likely depend on the audience. It could gain attention from people already worried about the issue, but more moderate voters could turned off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScholarship has shown that, with this kind of approach, you can raise awareness and creep people out, but it can also paralyze and alienate people,\u201d said Boykoff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accuracy of the \u201ccli-fi\u201d<\/a> future depicted in the ad is another question. The radio news brief claims a temperature high of 127 degrees Fahrenheit in Colorado Springs at some point in the \u201cnot so distant future.\u201d One study<\/a> found Colorado will experience more record highs than lows as the average temperature warms, but the heat in the ad is way up there. Colorado\u2019s current high temperature record<\/a> is 115 degrees Fahrenheit set outside Las Animas last July. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another creepy radio blast warns of a \u201cheightened chance of large-scale tornadoes.\u201d While some signs point to more tornadoes due to human-caused climate change, it remains a matter of scientific debate.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other so-called \u201cclimate candidates\u201d haven\u2019t taken such a frightening tone. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee centered his presidential candidacy on the issue before dropping out last August. His campaign launch video<\/a> sounds like a football coach rallying a team before the big game. Bernie Sanders likes to say \u201cthe future of the planet is at stake,\u201d but he\u2019s so far stopped short of depicting a future where it\u2019s lost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romanoff said there isn\u2019t some grand political calculus behind the ad. More than anything, he said it\u2019s an attempt to force people to reckon with the climate crisis and illustrate the stakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of smart people who try to distill the findings of the politics of this approach,\u201d Romanoff said. \u201cYou could make your living analyzing the tea leaves. That\u2019s just not the job I\u2019m applying for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CPR Newsby Sam Brasch At some point in the not so distant future, a young girl in Colorado Springs can\u2019t go outside. The temperature is 127 degrees Fahrenheit. Her father wears a hazmat suit and a gas mask as he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-31 08:35:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4031,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4021\/revisions\/4031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}