A great discussion about global warming on Friday's Real Time With Bill Maher. It's really incredible that the survival of our species and the health of our planet have somehow become a partisan issue.
We can't fix a problem that we don't accept exists. It would be one thing if Republicans simply disagreed on the methods or the degree to which we should compromise on economic growth to ameliorate this phenomenon. But to be so reactionary as to deny this glaring scientific fact is just.. well, moronic.
But what John Boehner, Michele Bachmann, Michael Steele, John Schimkus and of course, the Bush Administration for 8 years have been saying is that there's no environmental threat coming from our manmade CO2 emissions.
I've said it before -- at this stage it's like arguing whether evolution is real or whether gravity exists. These people just don't deserve to be taken seriously.
Relativity would never have been discovered if humans continued to debate gravity decades after it was scientifically understood -- and we can't find solutions to climate change if we can't all accept the basic premise that it's the real deal. I know some folks on the right will pounce on my use of the word "survival" and label me an alarmist. No, we're not going to die next month or next year; but ultimately survival is exactly what it comes down to for future generations -- we're not going to be around forever and it is obvious that we're accelerating our own demise.
How is this not one of the biggest moral issues of our time?
I long for the day conservatives like Andrew Sullivan, David Frum and (yes) David Brooks -- the sane, sensible ones, at least on global warming -- begin representing the mainstream of the party; rather than Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Back and Sean Hannity. Until then, one of two major political parties in America will continue behaving like unrestrained children on this issue.