A climate change denier and his young earth creationist sidekick have won the Oval Office in 2016, a year that will almost certainly go down in infamy as the hottest year in the modern climate record. Rather than write about the global effects, CNN has teamed up with naturalists and photographers from all corners to show the world what climate change looks like now, and to give us a glimpse into our collective future if we don’t take it more seriously as a nation and a species. The new president-elect and his running mate would be well advised to examine those images. They’re perfectly suited even for those with poor attention spans and no scientific education.
Trump’s inconsistent ramblings on climate science have been well documented here and elsewhere. His related promise to end the mythical war on coal expertly dissected by Mark Sumner as well. But just as a reminder of who we are dealing with in the vice president-elect, here are some past excerpts:
On Feb. 21, 2014, Pence told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd that he didn’t know if humans’ role in climate change “is a resolved issue in science today.” Todd then responded, “a lot of scientists out there” do believe humans are impacting the climate. Pence then said, “I know we’re talking about climate change. Just a few years ago we were talking about global warming. We haven’t seen a lot of warming lately. I remember back in the ’70s we were talking about the coming Ice Age.”
We’ve also written about the global cooling myth. Neither Trump nor Pence have said anything of substance about climate change recently. It’s unclear what they think and that brings up a wider issue conservatives are going to have to face head on whether they want to or not: they’re in power now.
Conservatives are no longer on the sidelines, playing Monday morning quarterback, criticizing from the peanut gallery, enjoying the luxury of being for something one day and against it the next as facts and fortunes shift over ever tighter news cycles. The time for simplistic soundbites is over, playing defense and attacking the powers-that-be is no longer an option, they are the powers-that-be and they have to actually govern now.
That means they have to stake out consistent positions, act on them, and accept the responsibility for success or failure—or accept the consequences for not acting on or ignoring a potential problem until it blows up both politically and literally. Judging by Facebook and Twitter posts, it hasn’t yet dawned on their followers and surrogates that that new dynamic has taken over, and watching the few who have realized it struggle with that new role is at least a little bright spot of entertainment in an otherwise soul-crushing time.