“God is a Republican” was a common enough bumper sticker a few years back. For all we know, you can still see few in what might be termed, politely, the more rural areas of certain states. Whether this belief is true or not, it leaves its holders with a certain problem. If God is behind it all, He is certainly behind the weather. And that has been getting a lot, lot worse lately. Everywhere.
We’ve got two writers for you in our links. John Vidal in the Guardian[1],but also Eric Mack from the impeccably right-wing, free market Conservative Forbes.[2] And the point they make is the same: the storms, the cyclones, the fires and the crop failures are exactly in line with what the IPCC and other climate scientists have been telling us for a long time. Storm Elliot and things like it are becoming bigger, more frequent and more extreme. So where do all these Republicans fit in?
Well, one thing is certain. If something had been done about it four and five decades ago, we wouldn’t be in this mess now. Don’t say we didn’t know. President Jimmy Carter was aware of the danger, and installed solar panels on the White House roof. But Ronald Reagan took them down. Thus setting the tone for his party and its media cheer leaders who have acted like an enormous elephant standing in the way of all efforts to deal with climate change ever since. And it’s not us at LSS saying this. This blog has only come about because of a slew of articles we found in the course of something else.[3] [4][5] All we’ve done to select a few, and those from over several years, to show how long this has been going on. And perhaps a hint or two of why.
Cause and effect is a dodgy art, and direct attributions are difficult. But anyone can ask questions. So here’s one for our American Readers. When the storm sweeps in, or the crops dry in the fields: how much are the Republicans responsible for this? We only asked.
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/29/no-such-thing-freak-weather-2023-storm-elliott
[3]https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/opinion/climate-change-republicans.html
[4] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/10/why-republicans-deny-climate-change/343790/
#republican party #donald trump #fox news #climate change #global warming #ipcc #storm elliott #freak weather
Learning, Science and Society 