Kroog Versus The Stupid

Paul Krugman takes on climate change deniers that voted against ACES, aka the GOP.

To fully appreciate the irresponsibility and immorality of climate-change denial, you need to know about the grim turn taken by the latest climate research.

The fact is that the planet is changing faster than even pessimists expected: ice caps are shrinking, arid zones spreading, at a terrifying rate. And according to a number of recent studies, catastrophe — a rise in temperature so large as to be almost unthinkable — can no longer be considered a mere possibility. It is, instead, the most likely outcome if we continue along our present course.

Thus researchers at M.I.T., who were previously predicting a temperature rise of a little more than 4 degrees by the end of this century, are now predicting a rise of more than 9 degrees. Why? Global greenhouse gas emissions are rising faster than expected; some mitigating factors, like absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans, are turning out to be weaker than hoped; and there’s growing evidence that climate change is self-reinforcing — that, for example, rising temperatures will cause some arctic tundra to defrost, releasing even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Temperature increases on the scale predicted by the M.I.T. researchers and others would create huge disruptions in our lives and our economy. As a recent authoritative U.S. government report points out, by the end of this century New Hampshire may well have the climate of North Carolina today, Illinois may have the climate of East Texas, and across the country extreme, deadly heat waves — the kind that traditionally occur only once in a generation — may become annual or biannual events.

In other words, we’re facing a clear and present danger to our way of life, perhaps even to civilization itself. How can anyone justify failing to act?

Well, sometimes even the most authoritative analyses get things wrong. And if dissenting opinion-makers and politicians based their dissent on hard work and hard thinking — if they had carefully studied the issue, consulted with experts and concluded that the overwhelming scientific consensus was misguided — they could at least claim to be acting responsibly.

But if you watched the debate on Friday, you didn’t see people who’ve thought hard about a crucial issue, and are trying to do the right thing. What you saw, instead, were people who show no sign of being interested in the truth. They don’t like the political and policy implications of climate change, so they’ve decided not to believe in it — and they’ll grab any argument, no matter how disreputable, that feeds their denial.

Indeed, if there was a defining moment in Friday’s debate, it was the declaration by Representative Paul Broun of Georgia that climate change is nothing but a “hoax” that has been “perpetrated out of the scientific community.” I’d call this a crazy conspiracy theory, but doing so would actually be unfair to crazy conspiracy theorists. After all, to believe that global warming is a hoax you have to believe in a vast cabal consisting of thousands of scientists — a cabal so powerful that it has managed to create false records on everything from global temperatures to Arctic sea ice.

Yet Mr. Broun’s declaration was met with applause.

But the GOP refuses to care. To them, wrecking the climate by the end of the century is somebody else's problem, and there's no reason to burden today's current leaders with a problem that won't be felt for a hundred years. It'll cost too much to do it, and really who cares, we'll all be dead by then anyway.

Why ruin our economy now because there's an unproven chance we might wreck the planet later, Republicans declare.

Well that's just it. This is something that can't be put off. The numbers are getting worse, accelerating the pace of decay in the system. At this point, some are already saying the steps that Waxman-Markey seeks to take are too little, too late, and that far more drastic measures need to be taken now if there's any hope.

But Republicans could care less. Remember, they are the party that rejects science, and sees science as inimical to Man's God-Given Dominion Over Earth. Many of them simply say "God will fix the problem, thinking that man can affect the climate is arrogance to the point of elevating men above God."

The thing is, I know plenty of people who are devoutly religious and say yes, we're being terrible stewards of the earth God has given us. We're wrecking the place, and people are concerned. I absolutely agree with Kroog's point: the anti-science GOP is latching on to any argument they can make up to stop any action on addressing climate change.

They're on the wrong side of history on this one.