Download Climate sparks political war over fact, science

OPED, AUGUST 22, 2012
Climate sparks political war over
fact, science
By John H. Reaves
I grew up admiring the glory of facts in
shows like “Dragnet”: “Just the facts, ma’am.”
No wonder; we’re progeny of the 16thcentury Age of Enlightenment, which
heralded the rapid development of science,
medicine, law and democracy.
But there is a current political war against
fact and science.
The GOP has taken lead role of AntiScience Inquisitor. Many Republicans have
supported round after round of fruitless but
symbolic efforts to censure, cut and curb all
things related to climate, including its study,
funding and regulation, since regaining the
House in 2010. The effort has been lead by oil
and gas interests, including the billionaire
Koch brothers. The conflict with national
interests reeks. Just ask the military.
The Kochs and oil and gas staged a coup of
the powerful House Energy and Commerce
Committee in 2010. Nine of the 12 new
Republican members signed a pledge to
oppose regulation of greenhouse gases
(GHG). Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said climate
change was a “serious problem” in 2009, but
as new chairman, found power as obstructer.
And, many Republicans in the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee
now rail against climate.
Moderate Republicans seem afraid to
speak up. Presidential candidates even
kowtowed to the extremists. Mitt Romney
and Newt Gingrich once said climate change
was a problem but then retreated. Rick
Santorum has always angrily called climate
change a “hoax”; most others were close
behind.
Radicals at Fox News and Rush Limbaugh
convey only ridicule.
The GOP is running a three-ring circus
now. Koch and oil-supported Heartland
Institute liken people who believe in global
warming to the Unabomber. It’s so crazy,
some GOP states are outlawing considering
sea level rise when planning coastal
development.
Democrats pay lip service to the
environment but have proved spineless.
Feeling burned once, they wait for Republican
action. Obama has dropped the “C” word.
We fail when our national discourse on
facts and science become politicized and
taboo. Science develops through repetition
and challenge by peers. It’s fact-based. It’s
what keeps science cutting-edge, honest and
reliable. It is why we trust ourselves to
skyscrapers, surgeries and planes, and know
much about our universe.
The science behind climate change is well
established. Even longtime skeptic Dr.
Richard Muller now agrees. It is fact that GHG
are trapping heat in the atmosphere. World
temperatures have increased over 2 degrees
Fahrenheit in the past 50 years, with the
Arctic heating fastest. The ocean has
absorbed two-thirds of GHG and most of the
heat – but is nearing its limit to absorb. The
sea has risen about 6.7 inches the past
century; the rate doubled this past decade.
Almost all the world’s glaciers and ice sheets
are melting.
Small changes in temperature are starting
to cause radical changes in our climate
system. Noted climatologist Dr. James Hansen
just reported there is a 30-fold statistical
increase in extreme weather since 1950 to
1980 caused by global warming. GHG stay in
the atmosphere for decades. We’re already
tethered to changes that will trigger
threatening new feedbacks, like methane
release from melting permafrost.
Yet the parties lack integrity or courage to
explain the urgency and need for correction.
Climate change is not a belief. Those who
call it a hoax are deliberately misleading or
simply mislead. The strategy is pure Madison
Avenue. Call something a name long enough
and your audience might believe it.
But facts are facts. And polished purveyors
of falsehoods intend to stoke confusion,
“justified” by their appetite for: re-election.
Control and dominance of energy markets.
Freedom to pollute. Lack of accountability.
Profits.
So when you hear people attack science
and scientists with vitriol, just ask yourself
why. In time, the GOP will suffer from its
Faustian deal with oil and gas in the Great Lie
to the American people. Since Democrats
profess to know the urgency of the situation,
their party, too, will be branded for standing
by idly.
Meanwhile, good solutions exist that can
muster bipartisan support.
Place a steadily rising fee on carbonpolluting products and watch a surge of
private capital to clean energy and efficiency.
Return 100 percent of that as a “greencheck”
to all households to ensure two-thirds of
households come out ahead or break even.
Conservatives such as George Shultz, Michael
Bloomberg and Bob Inglis endorse it. Use
border tariffs to protect our businesses when
other nations lack the fee.
It is time for a rational discourse. And a
science lesson.
Reaves, an environmental and business
lawyer based in San Diego, is a founding
director of Citizens Climate Lobby. He
recently returned from Washington, D.C.,
where he was lobbying members of Congress
for a carbon fee and dividend.
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