“With one exception, none of the Republicans running for the Senate -- including the 20 or so with a serious chance of winning -- accept the scientific consensus that humans are largely responsible for global warming. The candidates are not simply rejecting solutions, like putting a price on carbon, though these, too, are demonized. They are re-running the strategy of denial …, repudiating years of peer-reviewed findings about global warming and creating an alternative reality in which climate change is a hoax or conspiracy.”I find this simply astounding and extremely demoralizing.
What passes for political debate in this country (let alone campaigning standards) long ago passed through the floor of what I would class as a thoughtful exchange of ideas by individuals genuinely concerned with their country’s future, but the anti-intellectual strain that has emerged in the Republican Party over the past decade and dismisses the value of scientific research has real consequences.
In terms of climate change and carbon emissions, this would not matter if the U.S. was a minor player. Unfortunately, however, it is the major transgressor (25% of world carbon emissions by 4% of the world’s population) and the failure of Congress to pass any kind of legislation to control these emissions undermines those who look to this country to lead on this issue (as it does on so many other important issues of our time).
Take care
David
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders in a Global Environment (2e)
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In Climate Denial, Again
561 words
18 October 2010
The New York Times
Late Edition - Final
34
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/opinion/18mon1.html
