A Defense Department report is titled “Most atolls will be uninhabitable by the mid-21st century because of sea-level rise exacerbating wave-driven flooding.” Guess what it says.
We now are well informed about way temperature of the world trend arrow is pointing. The world is warming up. At the turn of this century majorities of every group except the most conservative Republicans publicly agreed the globe is warming. Nations made climate accord agreements to slow that.
About the time that Senator Inhoff’s snow ball changed “global warming” to “climate change,” leaders of the Republican Party, aware that denying the existence of global warming makes them look like idiots, changed to “I don’t know that it is man-made.” So now every group except the most conservative Republicans publicly agree global warming is man-made. They still…
No matter how others may characterize their response to global warming the leaders of the Republican Party are far from idiots. Eighty percent were wealthy before filing for office, and the rest will be soon enough. Comprising 33% of the political talent of the nation, there must be logic and rationality in their policies of fighting government intervention on climate. At some level or point of view.
By-the-way, is fighting government intervention on climate the correct conservative position? Is it even conservative in the usual use of the word?
Conservatives are risk averse. They attend church every Sunday, insure their home, cars, and life, and save for college tuition costs and retirement. Risk aversion is a core conservative value. Fearing climate change is conservative.
Our largest corporations are about as conservative as anything. Our armed services are the same. Our navy has a Climate Change Roadmap: A list of actions to adapt to climate change. Big oil is safeguarding billion-dollar infrastructure projects from rising sea levels and increasing storm severity. Al Gore might still be wrong, but those guys are not going to chance it.
A nationally representative survey – Climate Change in the American Mind – conducted by Yale and George Mason University (Interview dates: March 7 – 24, 2018) found a majority of registered voters (59%) think global warming is caused mostly by human activities, but only 26% of conservative Republicans. So representation is what Republican leaders in Congress are doing when fighting government intervention on climate.
So Republicans in Congress who have done little to advance a climate agenda — other than to criticize the Green New Deal as a socialist experiment— are representing constituents who are informed by the “I don’t know that it is man-made” statements of Republicans in Congress. A circle of closed minds.
Jim Holland is Pct. 19 Chair of the Stephens County Democratic Party: scdpok.us or facebook.com/SCDPOK/.