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Question of the Day: Can Politicians Solve Climate Change?

posted by Yudhvir Ranchod at 8h39 GMT on Oct 11

It seems that you cannot pick up a newspaper today without reading about the dire consequences of climate change. The urgent need to address the way we live, eat and work is the central theme to today's question. With a particular focus on the role of politicians in the struggle against climate change, this question asks whether the highest authorities have the power to influence national policies.

Kazuhiro Soda's film, Campaign, The Kawasaki Candidate! is the film behind the question which investigates party politics and election campaigns in Japan.

Can a candidate with no political experience and no charisma win an election? Perhaps – if he is backed by the political giant, Prime Minister Koizumi and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). In the fall of 2005, 40-year-old, self-employed Kazuhiko “Yama-san” Yamauchi’s peaceful, humdrum life was turned upside-down when Koizumi’s LDP party chose him at the last moment as its official candidate to run for a vacant seat on the Kawasaki City Council. With zero experience in politics, no charisma, no supporters, and no constituency, Yama-San has one week to prepare for an election critical to the future of the LDP.

In The News

The Japan Times reported that climate change is very real threat to agriculture production in Japan. Along with rising sea levels, the consequences of a failure to take action would result in catastrophic floods and typhoons.
With politicians such as Al Gore leading the way in high-level discussion on climate change, Japan Today reported that former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori would be asked to attend a U.N. meeting on climate change. In attendance would be representatives of more than 150 countries, around 80 of them represented by top government leaders.
Read director Kazuhiro Soda's blog to get a glimpse of Campaign as it gets released worldwide.