Focus on Focus Earth: Who's the Greenest Presidential Candidate?

Barack Obama has been called green, in that he is a younger, less experienced candidate, but is also known for his green-friendly platform. John McCain, the Republican presumed nominee, is perhaps not as known for greenness, as it were. However in this heated election, both candidates, both parties, have agreed?climate change is a big problem. So what does each candidate actually have to say about America's environmental responsibility?

Guess who said what:

Candidate 1 "One of the things I draw from the Genesis story is the importance of us being good stewards of the land, of this incredible gift. And I think there have been times where we haven't been [good stewards], and this is one of those times where we've got to take the warning seriously [about climate change]. And part of what my religious faith teaches me is to take an intergenerational view, to recognize that we are borrowing thi planet from our children and our grandchildren. And this is where religious faith and the science of global warming converge: We have to find resources in ourselves to make sacrifices so we don't leave it to the next generation. We've got to be less wasteful, both as a society and in our own individual lives. I think religion can actually bolster our desire to make those sacrifices now. As president, I hope to rally the entire world around the importance of us being good stewards of the land."

Candidate 2 "I'm a federalist. The states should decide to enormous degrees what happens within those states, including off their coasts. The people of California have decided they don't want oil drilling off their coasts. The people of Louisiana have decided that they do. I applaud the governor's efforts and that of other states in this region and other states to try to eliminate the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change. Suppose that the governor and I are wrong, and there's no such thing as climate change. We adopt these green technologies, of which the US and the innovative skills we have and the entrepreneurship and the free market cap-and-trade proposal is enacted. Then all we've done is giving our kids a cleaner world."

Click above to find out. (If it were written here you'd see it before you got through, ruining the surprise.) These are just a couple of quotes taken from a large body of policy, votes, platforms and speeches. Who's the greener candidate? Hard to say, but perhaps one thing that is important is that we're in a milieu in which it is important to acknowledge climate change, the need to not only care but be active in caring for the planet, and to present this care and acknowledgment to a population that largely won't tolerate not caring.

That said, who do you think is greener? Have any interesting environmental factoids or anecdotes about either candidate?