O'Rourke in Iowa

But for O’Rourke, one issue remains most important — climate change.

“We know now beyond a shadow of a doubt that this planet has warmed 1 degree Celsius just since the year 1980,” he said. “That is over the warming we’ve seen pre-Industrial Revolution. We also know that beyond a shadow of a doubt that is not caused by God, this is not an act of Mother Nature, this one is on us.”

O’Rourke said that the world has an estimated 10 years to mitigate climate change, and imposing farming practices to capture carbon, using cover crops and no-till solutions, and reverting a dependence on fossil fuels to renewable energy can help adjust the affects of a warming globe.