MIAMI — Despite a year that has produced unprecedented ice melts
in the Arctic and Greenland, a devastating drought across much
of the country and hundreds of record high temperatures around
the world, the subject of climate change has managed to remain
in the deep freezer of presidential politics. At a small rally
in Miami Beach on Thursday, environmentalists took one last
longshot at making global warming a meaningful campaign issue
hoping that if freaky global weather wasnt enough, maybe salty
Atlantic Ocean percolating up through the sewer grates of one of
the states major tourist destinations might merit at least a
question during the final presidential debate on Monday at Lynn
University in Boca Raton. Nowhere else is the reality of climate
change more visible than right here, right now on the corner of
10th and Alton in Miami Beach, said Christie Elles, an outreach
associate for the Union of Concerned Scientists, who stood
barefoot in ankle deep water along with about 20 activists on
the flooded sidewa