What Climate Change?
GOP Deniers Are Plentiful
Really? Really? Yes, really, climate change denial is alive and strong, brought to you by many of the same geniuses who brought you “Stop the Steal.”
A new analysis showed that 139 members of the 117th Congress, including 109 GOP representatives and 30 senators, refuse to acknowledge the scientific evidence of human-caused climate change. The analysis also found that 82 members of the House of Representatives and six senators are both climate deniers and also denied the certified results of the 2020 general election, claiming that trump was the real winner and was robbed by millions of phony votes, something that nobody in their right minds believes.
The climate change deniers, all Republicans, insist on their dumb, pandering ideas, in the face of near unanimous scientific findings and record extreme events in 2020 that caused damage in the U.S. that exceeded $1 billion each, a new annual record that shattered the previous record of 16 events that happened in both 2011 and 2017. But despite natural calamities from massive wildfires and hurricanes to world wide drought and receding ocean levels, there remain “leaders” who refuse to see the reality and the dangers posed to our world. We have to continually hammer on about the idiocy of so many elected officials, so that people don’t forget how these politicians would lead the world to destruction and that is not hyperbole.
The analysis comes from the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank that was formed by John Podesta, the White House Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2001 and counselor to President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2018. The chairman is Tom Daschle, a former Democratic Senator from South Dakota from 1987 to 2005. Daschle was Senate Minority Leader in 1995 and later the Majority Leader in 2001.
The same 139 climate-denying members have received more than $61 million in lifetime contributions from the coal, oil, and gas industries, the analysis found. Each of the federal legislators supported trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the international treaty on climate change.
Rather than prattle on about the coming weather apocalypse I’ll let a representative group of the learned elected officials offer their own jaw dropping words.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has received $3,372,000 in campaign contributions from coal, oil, and gas industries, said in a 2018 Senate debate that “The climate has been changing from the dawn of time … The climate will change as long as we have a planet Earth.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said in a January 2019 radio interview that “First of all, the climate hasn’t warmed in quite a few years. That is proven scientifically.” Johnson has collected a total of$642,585 from coal, oil, and gas industries.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kent., the Senate minority leader, who is $3,018,793 richer from contributions from coal, oil and gas, said in a January 2019 interview that he is no scientist but that the United States trying to stop climate change “by itself is going to have zero impact … it’s not a yes or no question. I am not a scientist … There are different opinions among scientists.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kent., said in a June 2017 interview he didn’t think people “should be alarmist about this.”
Paul said the planet is 4.5 billion years old and there have been “great extremes of climate change.”
“Can man have an impact? Yes. But let’s don’t be so alarmist as to say such outrageous things that if we don’t sign the Paris accord, there’s going to be mass extinction? That is a ridiculous statement,” said Paul who has collected $481,660 in contributions from the coal, oil, and gas industries.
Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., an evangelical Christian, commented in a Aug. 2018 interview that he believes in a “Young Earth” theory that the world was created less than 10,000 years ago. He disputes the findings of a majority of scientists who say the world is at least 4.5 billion years old.
“And there are also bodies of scientists that also hold to a Young Earth theory. Do I believe in creation? Yes. And the creative hand of God? I do. I will continue to base my faith on the belief in Genesis,” said Harris, the recipient of $6,500 from the coal, oil, and gas industries.
Mark Meadows, the former trump chief of staff and a Republican member of congress from North Carolina said in a Sept. 2014 interview that concerns over climate change were “just ridiculous.” Meadows had a reported $74,375 in coal, oil and gas contributions.
“‘How ridiculous is that when you have our fighting men and women, they get up and they say, ‘man it’s a little chilly, maybe today is the day that we’ve got to worry about climate change,’ “ Meadows said.
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., made light of the climate concerns when he said on Sept. 11, 2018, “When I was a kid, we were having global cooling, and we were going to go into another ice age, and now we’ve switched it to now the Earth is warming.” Nunes’ war chest grew by $460,700 in contributions from the oil,coal and gas industries.
Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., said at a 2018 hearing before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, that rocks were causing rising sea levels, rather than climate change.
“What about erosion?” said Brooks, who got $24,000 from oil, coal and gas. “Every time you have that soil or rock, whatever it is, that is deposited into the seas, that forces the sea levels to rise because now you’ve got less space in those oceans because the bottom is moving up.”
Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., said at a 2017 hearing that he “did a little research and found out the number of forest fires in Arkansas has actually decreased over the past 20 years. So apparently the climate change isn’t affecting forest fires in my state.” His campaign collections from oil, coal and gas totaled $172,050.
Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, who received $1,482,013 from oil, coal and gas, said he didn’t challenge the reality of climate change “but the central question awaiting an answer is to what extent man-made emissions are responsible for this change. Contrary to popular opinion, that question remains unanswered.” He is flat out wrong.
The analysis found that climate deniers comprise 52 percent of House Republicans; 60 percent of Senate Republicans; and more than one-quarter of the total number of elected officials in Congress. Of the 69 freshmen representatives and senators elected to their respective offices in 2020, one-third deny the science of climate change, including 20 new House Republicans and three-of-four new Republican senators, the analysis found.
“Ultimately, the findings of this analysis show that — despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary — climate denial remains alive and well in the United States Congress, and its impacts are already costing lives,” the analysis concluded.
“There is also significant overlap between elected officials who deny climate science and elected officials who deny the reality of the pandemic that has sickened millions and claimed the lives of more than half a million Americans in the past year,” the analysis noted.