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From the white coats to the White House, another extensive study on anthropogenic climate change, another confirmation:
A new government study of global warming confirms that climate change caused by carbon dioxide is already having a "visible impact" on the United States, and severe problems are on the way -- including longer droughts, more floods and an increase in pests like mosquitoes -- if global warming continues unchecked. The report by the Global Change Research Project, a consortium of government agencies like the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, also directly links climate change to carbon dioxide generated by humans …
The report documents that temperatures in the US have risen about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last hundred years and could eventually rise by 10 degrees more. Of course, it might take centuries before the process runs its full course. But just the early stages, signs of which are already apparent, could be a disaster. When asked what it might mean, Dr James Hansen, Director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that “Earth would be a very different planet if we are so foolish as to stay on the business-as-usual scenario.”
Any rational society would take steps to keep that from happening. But years ago the fossil fuel industry made a brilliant PR move: they bypassed the science completely and laid the issue squarely across the political divide. As in divide and conquer, as in Left and Right.
Conservatives are not monolithic, despite the stereotypes portrayed on cable news. They are your next door neighbor, the guy at work who will volunteer to come over on his day off and help you move, the lady down the street you entrust the keys to your home and the care of your pets to when you’re on vacation. In my neck of the woods, our local Hospice is manned almost entirely by socially conservative evangelical Christians: I live in Florida, so those men and women who voluntarily care for the terminally ill in those last tragic days are never, ever, out of business. Many scientifically inclined conservatives I know have no problem accepting climate change.
But when the subject comes up among the average grass roots conservative neighbor, you probably won’t hear much about legit science, data or empirical observations, from NASA or NOAA. It’s more likely going to be an incoherent jumble of self contradictory apologetics running the gamut from 1) there is no global warming, it’s a liberal hoax, 2) in fact the earth is actually cooling (Mars is cooling too!), 3) there is a slight increase in global temperatures but no one knows what’s causing it, 4) the earth naturally warms up and cools down on its own all the time, 5) the sun is causing it (Mars is warming up too!), 6) human activity may be causing some warming but no one knows for sure or by how much, 7) we’re causing it, but it would be too expensive to fix, and 8) humans are causing it and we could have fixed it, but now it’s too late. Those talking points are endlessly reinforced by a seamless, vertically integrated network of think-tanks, newspapers, talk radio, websites, and PR operations as slick and impartial as a Madison Ave advertising exec hired by Pepsi to take market share from Coca-Cola.
Get into a conversation with a loyal conservative, by email, on blogs or in person. Try pointing out that temperature increases are empirical, they have been directly measured with great precision by the most prestigious earth science organizations in the nation; that Mars has vast unpredictable dust storms in a tenuous atmosphere lasting weeks at a time that change its temperature; that human produced greenhouse gases have distinctive chemical and radiological signatures allowing them to be distinguished from natural sources; that the sun is the most studied object in the solar system outside of earth and there is no sign of the requisite sustained brightening needed, or that the warming on earth is flowing from the surface up and not the troposphere down; that ancient warming and cooling events did indeed occur and they produced the most horrific mass extinctions and climatic catastrophes in the fossil record; that solutions exist which would create whole new industries complete with dazzling spin offs while improving our environment, boosting our energy independence, and depriving terrorist networks of funding; or that it’s never too late to put on the brakes when you’re speeding toward the edge of a cliff. Try until you’re blue in the face. Good luck. This is what you're up against:
Because for hard core loyalists, no matter what other redeeming characteristics they may possess, climate change is not a matter of science or engineering or data: It’s the detestable algore vs. the Heroic Rush Limbaugh, lefty socialist traitor vs Rightwing Patriotic American, Stalwart Republican against lazy ass liberal cheat, and that rivalry is so ingrained in their DNA that they’re irrevocably, emotionally invested in being right. No. Matter. What.
But that’s not the worst part. I don’t agree with most republican policies these days, but one thing I will say for the conservative politicians behind them: they take care of their base. I wish democrats would show half the consistency, persistence, and loyalty for the progressives who stand by them, as the Republican Party does for their counterpart constituents. Unfortunately, a small but very vocal part of that conservative base is ignorant as all get out, some are blinded by religious ideology, and a few are angry, paranoid, and unstable extremists. Voters tend to vote for peole who think like they do. And that means we have an entire, major political establishment, Representatives, Senators, Judges, Mayors, Governors, etc., representing millions of people, in charge of making energy and environmental policies that will make or break whole communities and economies, that are frighteningly ignorant themselves, shameless sociopathic liars, or just plain old flaked out lunatics:
