In Face of Climate Fueled Disasters, Denialist Nutbags Double Down

They won’t come around. They can’t. Fragile psyches would not take the strain of acknowledging fact.

Avidly:

The Jade Helm 15 conspiracy theorists may have been able to convince Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to shoot his political career in the foot by indulging their paranoia, but their influence pales in comparison to climate deniers. Climate change deniers not only dominate both chambers of Congress, but numerous statehouses, the Republican Party, Fox News and much of AM radio.  Following their party’s dominance of the 2014 election, 49 Republican Senators voted against an amendment stating that “climate change is real and human activity significantly contributes to climate change.”

Fossil fuel dollars have helped make climate deniers the best-funded conspiracy theorists in America. The Koch brothers’ network alone is going to spend $900 million in the 2016 election cycle, which is about as much as either party will spend on their own. Much of this money will go to climate deniers. If the petroleum-profiting Koch brothers and their $900 million wanted a carbon tax, we would likely have a carbon tax. If they wanted a congressional investigation into Area 51, New Mexico would likely play host to a new batch of very high-powered UFO enthusiasts.

Money is only part of the story. There is also the growing conviction that more government equals less freedom. This is problematic for anyone who wants to do anything significant about climate change as the math requires more than bringing your own bag to the grocery store.  Cap and trade policies, carbon taxes or other government policies that demand systematic changes will need to happen if we want to maintain anything close to the climate we have now.

If government is the problem, how do you accept an issue like climate change where not only is government regulation necessary, but multinational agreements and regulations are required? The answer is you probably don’t. This is especially true when the same people pushing for environment regulations are not on your political team.

Inside Climate News:

Texas politicians have been particularly silent on climate change’s tie to the storm that ravaged their state. InsideClimate News received no response from Texas’ two senators, Republicans Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, or from Congressmen representing districts on the southeast coast that were affected by Harvey. The Washington Post also obtained no direct answerto a similar query to all 38 members of the Texas delegation.

Only Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science Committee, responded to the Post, by pointing to a CNN interview in which Bill Read, former director of the National Hurricane Center, said there was nothing uncommon about storms intensifying in the Gulf of Mexico. (Climate scientists would agree with Read, but they say that warmer air and oceans will, indeed, fuel more dangerous storms.) Another frequent argument is that the U.S. had been in a “hurricane drought” without “major hurricanes” for 12 years. (Researchers point out that that period included both Hurricane Ike and Superstorm Sandy.)

Inside Climate News has examples:

U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.)
Member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

“Climate change has existed to well before human history. So the question isn’t whether or not our climate changes, nor is it really a question of whether the human race does have some sort of impact. The question is to what degree, and at what expense, and what sort of time frame, and how can we best address that, and does it call for harvesting other people’s treasure?”

Scott Pruitt
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator

“I think at this point to look at things like this and to talk about a cause and effect really isn’t helping the people of Texas right now. … So, I think for opportunistic media to use events like this to, without basis or support, just to simply engage in a cause-and-effect type of discussion, and not focus upon the needs of people, I think is misplaced.”

Rick Perry
U.S. Energy Secretary and former Texas Governor

“Well, we can line up the science on both sides of this. This isn’t the time to have that conversation, if you want to know the truth of the matter. I’m focused on search and rescue. I’m focused on making sure the people of southeast Texas and Louisiana are able to recover from this. I know everyone wants to run to the climate change debate, but that’s very secondary at this particular time, and let’s get back to taking care of our citizens.”

 

H. Sterling Burnett
Research fellow with Heartland Institute think tank in Dallas

“It’s not clear how much of this is unprecedented. It’s not clear how much was the severity of the storm and the amount of rain that fell—which was a lot—and how much is due just to the nature of the development we’ve seen in Houston on wetland that is sinking. The same thing’s going on in Miami. It’s not due to rising sea levels, but it’s due to subsidence. If you build on a swamp, heavy buildings on land that was never meant to hold hug permanent structures, and you start sinking below sea level, you’re going to be in trouble when the storms come, and the seas do rise.”