GOP-led climate denial threatens the future of the entire world.
"Human
kind ...cannot bear very much reality."
—T.S.
Eliot, Burnt Norton
It's been over a year since polling data found that climate change has emerged as America's most polarizing political issue. The survey, conducted by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, found that the divisiveness characterizing the climate debate is so strong it has eclipsed such longstanding hot-button issues as gun control, evolution, the death penalty and even abortion. And with President Obama recently making an historic visit to Alaska to speak about the urgency of acting on climate change just as Republicans strive to derail his climate agenda, there is little sign that the climate gap separating the nation's two major parties will be bridged any time soon.
In
2009, the Pew Research Center surveyed Americans' views about the state of
science and its impact on society. They concluded that "the strongest
correlate of opinion on climate change is partisan affiliation."
Two-thirds of Republicans (67 percent) believe that global warming isn't
actually happening — or if it is, it's not from man-made causes. By contrast,
most Democrats (64 percent) say the planet is heating up mainly due to humans.
Climate
change should not be this polarizing: Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), the UN's climate arm, reported that scientists are more
than 95 percent certain that the primary cause of global
warming is human activity.
American
Pipe Dream
When
it comes to the general election, the climate issue poses an electoral problem for the
Republicans: A majority of Americans say they are more likely to
support political candidates who promise to tackle climate change,
according to a recent poll. Conducted by the New York Times, Stanford
University and Resources for the Future, the poll found that two-thirds of
Americans say they would support candidates who promised to take action to
combat climate change. Almost half of Republicans (48 percent) say the same thing. The
poll also found that a solid majority of U.S. voters, 83 percent, believe
global warming poses a serious threat to the world.
While
there are climate deniers across the globe, this anti-science stance is a
particularly American phenomenon. In the U.S., elected GOP climate deniers are
commonplace; several of them are seeking the presidency. It's a different story
in other industrualized nations. "In Europe, climate change denial is seen
as the preserve of the crackpot," writes London-based finance and
economics writer Imogen Reed. "Few political figures or members of the
news media would dream of mentioning it, as doing so often receives the same
contempt from the European public as denying the Holocaust."
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