An astonishing number of Republicans and conservatives believe that climate change, driven by global warming is some kind of hysterical hoax, being conjured up by radical left wing pseudo-scientists and tree huggers. They believe the melting of our polar ice caps is a natural course of events and we are in a cooling period, rather than a warming period. They don’t believe that the activity of six billion people living in industrialized areas, spewing out tons of pollution every day, could be connected to the thinning of the planet’s ozone layer, which protects us from the sun’s damaging rays. According to right wing talking-heads, it could only be a massive conspiracy fabricated by thousands of scientists and liberal politicians around the world, who are bent on using global warming as a means to control our freedom and increase our taxes.
“Man-made global warming is a hoax!” Rush Limbaugh, 2009
“Al Gore: ride in coach, save a polar bear!” Sean Hannity, 2009
“We are cooling, we are not warming…Greenland, which is covered in ice, was called Greenland for a reason, right?” Michael Steele, 2009
"It can't be man-made, because all the other planets in the solar system are warming at the same rate." Unidentified global warming blogger, 2009
Government brochure on climate literacy
According the Environmental Defense Action Fund, our society is under an all-out assault from the global warming detractors, who talk loud, propagate ignorance, and are demonstrably devoid of factual proof. Here are some of the statistics cited by the EDAF:
*$450 million: Amount spent on lobbying and political contributions by opponents of
global warming action in 2008.
*52: Public spokespersons engaged by polluters and the ideological right to spread
misinformation about global warming on line and in the media.
*2,340: Number of paid lobbyists working in Washington on climate change in 2008
*7 out of 8: Proportion of climate lobbyists advocating against climate action.
*45 million: Amount spent on global warming denial advertising by the coal industry in 2008.
Environmental Defense Action Fund
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On December 7, 2009, there will be representatives from 192 countries that will meet at a summit in Copenhagen for discussions to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which will expire in 2012. This time, the United States will participate. The Bush/Cheney administration refused to be involved and claimed the cost to curtail C02 emissions was too high. President Obama believes the cost of doing nothing is too high. As a result of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent trip to Beijing, the United States will be working in cooperation with China on the process of creating a global roadmap on energy and climate change, in the unified effort to revamp the global economy to be more low-carbon and more energy efficient. There are thousands of scientists, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who believe that not doing anything will exacerbate increases in C02 levels and cause temperatures to increase by approximately 7 degrees Fahrenheit and sea levels to rise between 3-7 feet by 2100.
Whether the skeptics are right or wrong, what is the worst that could happen if we reduce C02 emissions, limit drilling for gas and oil, decrease pollution, and increase renewable energy? The reality is, like it or not, we would develop a world that has cleaner air, more green jobs, fewer land fills, cleaner water, more global cooperation, fewer contaminates in our food sources, decreased dependency on fossil fuels, and less threat of our ocean communities being swamped by sea levels.
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Global Warming: The New Challenge with Tom Brokaw airs on March 18, 2009, on the Discovery Channel
More information on global warming:
Climate change in the Pacific Northwest
Comments
Everyone knows that Global Warming is a hoax for the purpose of making citizens pay more for heat and electricity. The idea that 18 years of warming in between two 30 year cooling spells could mean the end of the earth is too stupid to be believed. The worst that could happen is happening. One and a half Million Europeans a year are dying of cold because they cannot afford heat. The environmental groups and their lobbies have killed 200 Million people so far. The Medieval Warm period was warmer than now and the planet is still here. The Roman Warm period was warmer than that and the planet and the polar bears are still here. The IPCC and their 52 scientists are outweighed by the 131,000 American scientists who have signed a pettition stating that Global Warming is not real. Do you have another question?
A million and a half dead Europeans a year from the cold. MIght have to reconsider that figure.
That wasn't a question!
Oh...my...God
The people commenting on this article really should enlighten themselves by getting the new government brochure on climate literacy you have posted a link to, because they could use some global warming common sense 101.
Thanks for some non-apologetic commentary for a change. Where do these people get their information? Oh, that's right, Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Coulter, and the new RNC Michael Steele. The folks who tell them how to think and what to say.
There is a landslide of evidence to support human activity being responsible for global warming. The rest of this ignorant rhetoric is just ignorance, based on ideological mind-set and a stubborn refusal to see beyond the conservative play book. Come on people, learn to think for yourself!
Frank, no thanks, I prefer to let Limbaugh and Hannity and Glenn Beck do the thinking for me.
Rush says that only Gaaaaaawd can affect climate change. Thats good enough for me.
When Glenn Beck says its the end of the world that's when I'm going to jump in the Doom Bunker. Glenn came up with his own Commandments for crying out loud! And Hannity , oh man that guy is a wealth of information with great guest such as Meatloaf and Dick Morris and Tony Martin.
The questions are scientific, but the UN answers are political. The global warming debate is hardly about science. It has become a cause célèbre, championed by activists, politicians and celebrities. To deny their belief that humans are the cause of global warming, is to invoke their wrath. Science is not consensus; Science is theory, observation and measurement. Science is not, “let's all take a vote on the speed of light and see what number we get.” Science is dictated by nature's rules.
Don J. Easterbrook, Ph.D., emeritus professor of geology at Western Washington University, asked, "What does it take to ignore 10 years of global cooling, sharply declining temperatures the last couple of years, record setting lack of sun spots . . . failure of computer models to predict real climate, predictable warming and cooling climates for the past 500 years. The answer is really quite simple — just follow the money!"
Eve says "Everyone knows that global warming is a hoax"...I'd like to who died and left you in charge of talking for the rest of us?
The Republicans and conservatives have to have SOMETHING to talk about to divert media attention away from the fact that they have become a totally irrelevant faction. Their followers are little sheep who are only so glad to check their brains at the door and absorb what ever ridulous fodder their "leaders" are serving up for the day.
And then you proclaim to have the authority to speak for "everyone"?
U.S. highway travel was down 3.1 percent in January from a year ago, falling 7 billion miles to 222.4 billion miles.
Imagine driving 222 billion miles a year and not impacting the atmosphere.
Eve, you are a T-1000 being employed by coal and oil companies.
Bobiscold is cutting and pasting the same response across the internet. The climate is an area of study, that will never stop. Scientists working on climate are going to continue to work while lobbies and politicians debate policy, that is ok.
Science works.
They said the levies would fail in a Cat 5 hurricane, they failed. They say the ice rivers in Antarctica are moving much faster than 10 years ago. Once they speed up, they don't stop until they hit the ocean.
The debate is about what to do, and that will come from government and individuals, the science is going to continue to report findings, and the small subset of denialists will continue to cut and paste Psalms from the Denialist Bible and repeat the chant "Everyone knows it's a hoax, geeesh." Amen
Earl_E is right about the science. There have been natural cycles of thawing and freezing over millions of years, but now the balance is being thrown out of sink by human activity. The detractors don't want to believe it, but the proof is there. Here is a quote from an article in the Chicogo Tribune this morning entitled "Antartic drilling yields global warming insights."
"But human activity appears to be having its own effect on the world's climate, by driving temperatures warmer than they otherwise would be", said geologist Reed Scherer, also a member of the ANDRILL team from Northern Illinois University.
"If something is an external cycle," Scherer said. "It should be predictable. But it is much more complicated than that, and we seem to be throwing the pattern off balance now. It used to be that carbon dioxide rises were driven by the cycle. Now atmospheric carbon dioxide is driving the system."
Limbaugh, Hannity and Glenn Beck, like most scientists and thinking people all over the world, KNOW that man-made global warming is a hoax that will enrich the scammers (Gore and Obama’s Wall Street friends), increase the power of the U.N. and communists like Obama, and multiply poverty and servitude for the rest of us.
More and more scientists and thinking people all over the world are realizing that man-made global warming is a hoax that threatens our future and the future of our children. More than 700 international scientists dissent over man-made global warming claims. They are now more than 13 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers.
Additionally, 32,000 American scientists have signed onto a petition that states, "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate…"
"Progressive" (communist) politicians like Obama seem determined to force us to swallow the man-made global warming scam. We need to defend ourselves from the UN and these politicians, who threaten our future and the future of our children. Based on a lie, they have already wasted billions and plan to increase taxes, limit development, and enslave us.
I read "what's the worse that could happen" all the time.My worst
Power companies are not allowed to build new coal stations to keep up with the growing population.A big freeze hits the USA,no solar,windmills break down,no power to many parts of the country.Thousands freeze to death.
What is the worse that is happening now?
The poverty stricken people of Chad have been told by their government that they are now not allowed to burn charcoal,because of soil degradation,that's ok,but when they add that no coal is allowed to be imported because of climate change,then you are looking at children's deaths as a direct result of climate change hysteria.When I read that orangutans are again threatened in Indonesia because of forests being cleared to plant palm trees for palm oil for biofuel then I know how bad the situation is getting.Same for Borneo.Maybe people who are trumpeting that they are saving the planet,should be asked
saving it for who?my answer would be for the wealthy.
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