This recent analysis in Environment magazine (drawn from Gallop polling data) is truly alarming. Just at the time when we need to take urgent political and cultural action to slow the existential threat of climate change, Republicans are burying their heads even deeper in the sand.
The entire scientific community is in agreement on the reality of global human-related climate change. As far as the facts go - not the politically directed spin - global warning is a reality, just as much as evolution is a fact. Yet, like evolution, a startling number of Republicans have been hoodwinked by the supposed "scientific debate" into believing that 1) there is in fact a debate happening in scientific communities, and 2) we're not feeling the effects of climate change yet. Despite the mounting evidence to the contrary, the GOP - led by high-powered lobbies from the energy industry - have actually retreated since 1997 in their recognition that climate change is happening now. For the last five years, a fairly steady 41-46% of Republicans have taken this view (compared to an almost 20% rise of awareness in Democrats during the same time period, to a total of 76% believing climate change has already begun in 2008). Similarly, the percentage of Republicans who believe that global warming is still a "controversial theory" has stayed more or less static for the last seven years. (If anything, the number is actually in slow decline.)
What does it say when there is such a distinct, quantifiable partisan line between those who recognize this problem and those who don't? When an overwhelming plurality of Democrats appreciate that the problem is real, while a majority of Republicans still think the jury is out? The calculated GOP subversion of science and campaign of public misinformation is turning many Americans into a bunch of retrograde idiots. There is no debate about climate change in Japan; there is no controversy about this in Germany - yet in the richest country in the world, a major political party has turned away from the issue with the pathetic and misleading excuse of "plausible deniability."
I can't think of an issue that is as black and white as this one: on the threat of climate change, the Democratic party embraces the truth while the Republicans embrace lies.
3 comments:
The poll data is shocking. It is amazing how short term self interest can blind you to a long term danger, and make you want to ignore the inconvenient truth.
Don't look to politics for salvation. The intellectual communities see the problems of the world and some decide to help by controlling their contribution to population growth. In that sense the game of numbers is being won by the stupid and weak who continue to pop out babies and preach politics based on fairy-tales. The only comfort you can eke from this is that, once the markets collapse and the global climate begins sorting out the human population, it is the well-adapted and flexible that will survive.
The other countries of the world haven't had Lee Raymond, the former CEO of Exxon Mobil, leading a consortium of energy companies on a deliberate, well-articulated policy of creating the impression of debate and uncertainty in the scientific community. Google "debunking global warming" and you'll easily find lists of organizations promoting this view. With just one hour of researching these organizations on Wikipedia, you will find that a good number of them are funded by Exxon Mobil and by other names on the list in an incestuous circle. The most interesting fact I discovered is that many of the individuals and groups on the list were also heavily involved in protecting the tobacco industry back in the heyday of proving that nicotine and tar are harmful to one's health. If you want a campaign of deliberate misinformation and obfuscation, they're the experts.
Zach, I personally believe that the Republicans are big buyers of this propaganda because most of them watch Fox News Network or are involved in the energy industries in one way or another. Also, they don't like government "on their backs". They don't realize that they will be just as screwed by global climate change as those who support government intervention. It's the same old story--ignorance, greed and misguided ideology.
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