Oliver Stone: Hurricane Sandy Is "Punishment" for Obama and Romney Ignoring Climate Change

Oscar-winning director calls the superstorm retribution for the presidential candidates' silence on the global warming

By Josh Grossberg Oct 31, 2012 2:47 PMTags

If there's one thing Oliver Stone wishes would come out of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, it's the hope that President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, pull a U-turn on climate change. 

But he's not counting on it.

In an interview with HuffPost Live on Tuesday, the 66-year-old filmmaker expressed dismay that neither presidential candidate has been willing to talk about the impact of global warming, especially after an unprecedented superstorm savaged the East Coast earlier this week with a catastrophic intensity some scientific experts have attributed to warming seas and melting of polar ice.

"I was a little disappointed at the third debate when neither of them talked about climate control and the nature of the situation on earth," Stone said. "I think there's a kind of a weird statement coming right after it. This is a punishment. Mother Nature cannot be ignored."

The Born on the Fourth of July helmer predicted that the increasing climate crisis will continue to rear its ugly head well beyond the current election.

He added: "That's all I thought about. The storm will pass. The campaign will pass. But unfortunately the nature of this present world situation will not."

Stone, by the way, also revealed that he voted early and cast his ballot for Obama, despite bashing the president for continuing some of the Bush administration's policies in a new book he co-authored called The Untold History of the United States that hit stores yesterday.