It was an uncommon litmus check for a Republican major debate, one which shortly descended into private assaults and obfuscation: The candidates had been requested whether or not people had contributed to local weather change.

There is not any scientific dispute that the reply is sure, however hardly any of the Republican candidates gave a straight reply.

Before they may increase their palms, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida broke in.

“Look, we’re not schoolchildren,” he mentioned, rejecting the concept of a show-of-hands response. “Let’s have the debate.”

The line of questioning from the moderators, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, was in regards to the devastating wildfires in Maui and a current tropical storm that precipitated flooding in Southern California. They talked about rising ocean temperatures and performed a clip from a younger conservative, who requested how the Republicans operating for president may assuage younger folks’s issues about local weather change.

Mr. DeSantis, a distant second within the polls to former President Donald J. Trump, who skipped the talk, deflected and criticized President Biden’s response to the wildfires in Hawaii.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the millionaire entrepreneur whose marketing campaign has dabbled in conspiracy theories, seized on the second to disclaim the scientific consensus on local weather change.

“Let us be honest as Republicans — I’m the only person on the stage who isn’t bought and paid for, so I can say this — the climate change agenda is a hoax,” he mentioned.

Mr. Ramaswamy added, “And so the reality is more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change.”

Chris Christie, the previous New Jersey governor, admonished Mr. Ramaswamy, whom he sparred with steadily all through the evening.

“I’ve had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT,” Mr. Christie mentioned, referring to the substitute intelligence chatbot.

He then in contrast Mr. Ramaswamy’s frequent mentions of his skinny body and his “odd” final title to the rhetoric former President Barack Obama used when he first vaulted onto the nationwide political stage.

“And I’m afraid we’re dealing with the same type of amateur,” he mentioned.

Nikki Haley, the previous South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador beneath Mr. Trump, sought to reset the dialog.

“Is climate change real?” she mentioned. “Yes, it is. But if you want to go and really change the environment, then we need to start telling China and India that they have to lower their emissions.”