How GOP Leaders Came To View Climate Change As Fake Science
This was interesting to me. I didn't have the whole sweep of the thing in my head.
I've often said that it seems to me that a lot of problems are caused by liberals doing something wrong and conservatives over-reacting. I really have no idea whether that's true, nor whether the same thing happens in reverse just as often... But it's an idea that got lodged in my head. So in this case you could see current GOP "climate denialism" as an overreaction to Obama's Clean Power Plan. Though, of course, that could be seen as a liberal overreaction to to things already happening in the GOP...but that does seem a little less accurate to me... I dunno.
I've often said that it seems to me that a lot of problems are caused by liberals doing something wrong and conservatives over-reacting. I really have no idea whether that's true, nor whether the same thing happens in reverse just as often... But it's an idea that got lodged in my head. So in this case you could see current GOP "climate denialism" as an overreaction to Obama's Clean Power Plan. Though, of course, that could be seen as a liberal overreaction to to things already happening in the GOP...but that does seem a little less accurate to me... I dunno.
posted by Winston Smith at
6:47 AM
4 Comments:
Climate denialism predates Obama. I was hearing about it in the early 1990s (I forget exactly when it hit my consciousness). I'll go out on a limb and say it may have started around the time James Watt was secretary of the interior under Reagan...or maybe he just set the "anti-environmental" tone.
The article lists more causes than that. I suspect the campaign money counts for more of it, and the fact that failing to toe the line gets you killed in the primaries in most places.
Aa,
But how good was our evidence for it in the early '90s? I mean, if the evidence wasn't that good, then does it count as "denialism" rather than just *disagreement*?
Or I guess you could say that they'd already made up their minds before the evidence was in... Not sure how to think about this one...
One of my colleagues has studied the area for years, and has indicated there was a lot of good evidence even in the 90s. He is also one of the most rigorous and skeptic scientists I've ever met. Politics/donations has probably played a greater role...but science denialism (probably starting with evolution) has been out there a long time, especially on the Republican side of the aisle.
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