Congress members bring snowballs to the floor as evidence that climate change isn't real. Some of this behavior is due to personal beliefs, but there are other factors:
So due to the ignorance and corruption among conservative lawmakers regarding climate change and carbon emissions, congress has been in an ideological deadlock on the issue of climate initiatives. The EPA existing somewhat independent of that framework was a benefit.
I am completely fine with it. We need to convince low information voters that climate change is a serious issue, and the opposition likes to point at snow storms and bring snowballs to congress as proof that climate change is a hoax.
One of the reasons people are able to roll their eyes at climate change is the politicians who show no evidence of practising what they preach, so the conclusion is that they're lying, which is not out of character.
Climate change is one of the most interesting issues in politics because of how pure and overt the motivations of the opposition are.
It's so hilarious to me that you can have a politician with major donations from Coal/Fossil Fuels try to legitimately discredit a trend that 98% of the scientists in this field have agreed is proven by data. I also can't think of another issue where 98% of experts in a field have empirically demonstrated with data that trends are occurring, yet we're still allowed to just "believe" or "not believe" in its occurrence.
Sorry, the "they" was too vague, I meant politicians. There are many in Congress that don't believe that climate change even exists. It seems that most scientists believe that it is the case though.
USA has played a key part in preventing and neutering global climate treaties. A big portion of US politicians don't believe the phenomenon even exists.
This is since basically all the conservative news sources in USA have been sourcing their climate stories from thinks tanks funded by oil and coal companies.
There is a very clear connection. Fossil company - think tank - corrupt media - voter - politician - international treaty.
Sacking of the capitol is but a minor blip and oops on this timeline of lie based world views.
Not only is truth not valued but it is aggressively opposed.
They're politically invested against action taken to mitigate climate change, and the best way to push those policies is to convince people that climate change isn't important and the people who say it's important are either idiots or lying.
I'm frustrated and spiteful because I'm an environmentalist. At least republicans are internally consistent: they're not willing to do anything about climate change because they don't think it'll happen. Folks here in DC/MD/VA in contrast profess to believe that this terrible thing is going to happen, but they're not willing to actually do anything that will solve it. Who exactly are the crazy ones?
That are lots of things we can do to attack climate change. None of those things are on the table.
I don't know why this is being downvoted when it's the key point: disbelief in climate change is a matter of political allegiance, not "validity" in the normal sense.
Anecdote: None of my conservative-leaning acquaintances believe that Climate Change is even a top-20 problem, let alone something that requires urgent nationwide or worldwide action. I believe the filter bubble is real.
Climate change is a fact. But unlike the hole in the ozone layer (which is being fixed), when there are HUGE economic interests involved, a change in enviromental politics is really hard to make.
I am extremely skeptical of climate change arguments because I overwhelmingly hear it from politicians who lie through their teeth about virtually everything and typically for their own gain. I want to believe but my bullshit meter just goes off so strongly whenever I hear a politician say anything
It's despicable, isn't it? Like, there are climate change deniers that are overly-skeptical or gullible and buy into the mountains of misinformation. And then there are those like Steve Goddard who sit down every day and work their asses off creating said misinformation (check his twitter). Actively manipulating and cherrypicking data to deceive for personal gain (whether it be paychecks, political favor, whatever).
And they're winning, considering only half of Republicans
believe climate change is even happening, let alone that it's manmade. This was probably the stupidest possible problem for the American political machine to make a wedge issue.
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=E01
So due to the ignorance and corruption among conservative lawmakers regarding climate change and carbon emissions, congress has been in an ideological deadlock on the issue of climate initiatives. The EPA existing somewhat independent of that framework was a benefit.
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