Friday, June 28, 2013

Congressional Climate Deniers - Virginia Ranks in La La Land

As the last post noted, the Republican Party has become a religious organization that rejects modernity and anything that suggests that the beliefs of the Christofascists party base might be wrong.  The dignity and normalcy of gays - particularly gay marriage - threatens the ability of the simpleminded (and their pastors in the pulpit) to blindly cling to a few selective Bible passages.  Evolution, naturally causes conniptions since it clearly debunks a literal approach to the Bible.  So too does climate change because it goes against the same closed minded, ignorant by choice mindset that prefers to hang onto the writings of uneducated, wandering goat herders from 2,500 years ago rather than engage in meaningful though and moral deliberations.  With the Virginia GOP firmly in the grips of the Christofascists, as Think Progress reports, Virginia's congressional delegation ranks among the most insane in the country when it comes to climate change denial.  Yep, right up there with Oklahoma. Here are excerpts:

Climate change is happening, humans are the cause, and a shocking number — more than 65 percent — of congressional Republicans refuse to accept it.

155 elected representatives from the 113th Congress have taken over $51 million from the fossil fuel industry that is the driving force behind the carbon emissions that cause climate change. They deny what over 97 percent of climate scientists say is happening — current human activity creates the greenhouse gas emissions that trap heat within the atmosphere and cause climate change. And their constituents are paying the price, with Americans across the nation suffering 368 climate-related national disaster declarations since 2011.

Almost 70 percent — 125 members — of the current Republican caucus in the House of Representatives deny the basic tenets of climate science. 65 percent (30 members) of the Senate Republican caucus also deny climate change. What this means is that they have made public statements indicating that they question or reject that climate change is real, is happening, and is caused by human consumption of fossil fuels.

This refusal to accept overwhelming scientific evidence is not just a symptom of the rank-and-file backbenchers. Members of GOP leadership and the committees that make critical decisions on national energy policy and air pollution have even higher concentrations:

  • 90 percent of the Republican leadership in both House and Senate deny climate change
  • 17 out of 22 Republican members of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, or 77 percent, are climate deniers
  • 22 out of 30 Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, or 73 percent deny the reality of climate change
  • 100 percent of Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Republicans have said climate change is not happening or that humans do not cause it
Some states are sorely suffering the effects of climate change in the form of climate-fueled natural disasters even as their elected representatives take in millions from fossil fuel contributions and reject the reality of climate science:
  • 18 members of the Texas congressional delegation deny the reality of climate change. Over their careers, these members have raked in over $10.8 million from oil, gas, and coal interests. Texas has suffered 58 climate-fueled disaster declarations since 2011.
  • More than half of the Oklahoma delegation denies climate change, and together they have received nearly $2.5 million in fossil fuel money. Since 2011, Oklahomans have borne dozens of disasters worsened by climate change.
  • 7 members of the Virginia congressional delegation — more than half — deny climate change and together they pulled in more than $1.25 million from fossil fuels like oil, gas, and coal interests. And Virginians have 8 disaster declarations to show for it.
Being clinically insane or having undergone a lobotomy are increasingly prerequisites to membership in today's GOP.   Meanwhile, here on the Virginia coast, sea levels continue to rise and flooding problems increase. 


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