Just for the record:
Climate change is accepted as a dangerous reality by all reasonable people.
Democrats and Republicans alike.
In 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its summary report on the climate emergency, warning that our climate is now changing rapidly almost everywhere and that immediate and massive action is necessary.
That was a huge deal — all 195 member governments had to approve the findings and language in this report, and the report is not ambiguous. The report’s main takeaway, put in a single sentence directly quoted from the report’s press release:
“Unless there are immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach.”
Other than stupid people and people acting purposefully stupid to serve their best interests, climate change is now an accepted fact by everyone.
But I also think it’s important to know that the majority of Democrats had accepted the realities of climate change as far back as 1992 by addressing the dangers of climate change in their 1992 election platform.
More than thirty years ago, Democratic leaders examined the data, listened to scientists, and stated unequivocally that climate change was real and dangerous.
They staked their 1992 election hopes, in part, on this belief.
Meanwhile, the Republicans denied climate change and made fun of their Democratic opponents for believing in such nonsense. They campaigned on anti-science platforms that argued that climate change was a hoax and the Democrats were fear-mongering.
They were either incapable of examining the data and rendering a thoughtful, accurate decision, or they were deliberately obtuse for their own political purposes. It cost us three decades of possible progress.
It doesn’t change anything to point to the dummies and the bad actors of yesteryear, but it should inform us about who to trust today because little has changed. Thirty-two years ago, Democrats attempted to take action to mitigate climate change but were stymied by people who were too stupid to see the problem or chose to close their eyes and pretend it wasn’t happening.
Even though climate change is now an accepted reality by all scientists, every nation on the planet, and most rational people, little has changed in terms of politics.
Today, that same party of dummies and bad actors denigrates scientists and their work whenever their findings fail to serve their purposes. The leader of their party and their presumptive nominee for President repeatedly rejected climate change while in office, claiming that the Earth would soon begin cooling on its own, denying that polar ice is melting, and taking actions to remove all references to climate change from public documents. He proposed deep across-the-board cuts in scientific research in many budget cycles and eliminated regulations designed to mitigate the production of climate change gases.
He said:
“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.”
He’s also said – more than once – that windmills cause cancer and suggested that bleach and light might cure COVID-19. He touted the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19, too, even after doctors and scientists repeatedly told him otherwise.
Even in the face of overwhelming scientific data, one party is choosing to follow a person who is either too stupid or too self-serving to take action to stave off a rapidly approaching climate crisis.
The other party acknowledged the problem and attempted to take action as far back as 1992.
