Over these past few weeks, climate change and global warming has been at the forefront of the news, especially with the new UN study [Google Search] which just came out earlier this month showing, without a doubt, that this is caused by human activity. And yet, despite the words of these scientists, there is much opposition to this idea amongst conservatives and Republicans [h/t digby].
I asked myself: why? Why this hostility and aversion to this theory, one that is accepted by about 99% of the scientific and lay world? At first, I figured it was merely to protect big business and the plutocracy, or that it stemmed from the movement’s anti-science/anti-rationalism ideology ~ but I realized that the reason was staring me in the face the whole time!
The conservative denial stems from one simple thing: the notion that human activity can affect climate change is fundamentally incompatible with their worldview.
Meaning?
Conservatives are the inheritors of a worldview premised on the idea that this world was made (either by God or natural forces) for humanity to use as we see fit. Quite literally, they see this planet as being specially built to sustain us and our activities, to accept any punishment, and to forever be our hospitable home.
In other words, the heart of their philosophy is that the earth was designed for human habitation, and made to withstand the effects of our activities. God made the world for humans, and we can do what we want with it and it will accept it all. As I said, to them, this is what the planet was made to do, and their entire ideology and belief system is built around this.
The science of global warming, by illustrating just how badly we CAN damage the planet, demolishes this belief, and exposes it as the mythology it is. This planet can NOT simply continue being mindlessly consumed by humanity wherever the 'market' takes it, it can NOT continue to be a dumping ground for our poisonous waste and chemicals. Global warming shows us, more than anything else, that the earth was NOT made for man.
Over the course of the 20th Century, it is quite apparent that there has been a national zeitgeist holding the idea that things are just going to keep on getting better for our kids and grandkids, and that humanity would continue to progress just as it had done for so many years. There were very few dissenters to this idea, as it was easy to hold such ideas as these United States became home of the premier economy in the world, and one of the only superpowers. However, things have changed since then.
It is no accident that the modern conservative movement ties its birth to the 60s. This is the beginning of when we began to question the assumptions and premises of our culture, and when Rachel Carson published her seminal work, Silent Spring. This book, more than anything else, began to open up the public awareness to the idea that there were limits to the punishment the planet would bear, and DDT was clearly beyond that limit. [Incidentally, it also occurs to me that this is why they seek to a return to a 1950s-type utopia as this was the last decade when the vast majority of the world still whole-heartedly subscribed to the now-dying ideology.]
For centuries, conservatives have been fighting science as it continually points out the flaws in their beliefs. It first proved that the earth was NOT at the center of the universe as they assumed God would’ve done had he made this planet especially for us. Next, science showed that man was NOT created in some special divine act, but rather came into existence just as every other creature, plant and amoeba. And now we KNOW, beyond a doubt (not counting the one scientist seeking a $10,000 pay-out [link] ) that this planet was NOT made to be a human dumping ground, and that, barring any change in our behavior, will soon be rendered uninhabitable for some time to come for all but a small percentage of organisms.