Republican Climate Change Denial Is Growing

One has to wonder what alternate reality world many Republicans are living in that the percentage who say climate change is not real is increasing.  Apparently, short of major coastal cities becoming submerged by rising sea levels for almost 40% of Republicans climate change remains a hoaks or some storyline manufactured by"woke" scientists.  The embrace of ingnorance and stupidity is truly stunning.  How a political party that once valued science and knowledge has become the home of knuckle dragging Neanderthals - no insult intended to Neanderthals - is both frightening and remarkable and, in my view, is attributable to the grasp evangelicals and the uneductaed now have on the party base.  There a some signs of hope - e.g., the City of Virginia Beach, all too often a GOP Bastion, recently had a bond referendum to finance improvements to address rising sea levels and flooding was approved by a huge margin - but over all, the embrace of ignorance in the GOP is growing.  Its little wonder so many college educated voters have been shifting to vote Democrat.   A piece in the Washington Post looks at the descent of the GOP into further climate change denial.  Here are highlights: 

Even as windstorms became more powerful, wildfires grew more deadly and rising seas made damaging floods more frequent, American views about the threat of global warming over the past few years remain largely unchanged, a Washington Post-ABC News poll finds.

A clear majority of adults say that warming is a serious problem, but the share — 67 percent — is about the same as it was seven years ago, when alarms raised by climate scientists were less pronounced than they are now.

The poll, released Friday, also finds that the partisan divide over the issue has widened. The percentage of Democrats who see climate change as an existential threat rose by 11 points to 95 percent over seven years.

Meanwhile, the share of Republicans who say climate change is a serious problem fell by 10 points, to 39 percent, over the same period. The Republican decline in Post-ABC polls tracks with the findings of annual Gallup polls in which Republican concerns dropped after 2017, when Donald Trump took office as president.

Trump denied the existence of climate change and pulled the United States out of a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are causing the atmosphere to warm. In 2017, 41 percent of Republicans told Gallup they believed warming had already begun. But this year, 29 percent expressed that belief.

“I think what we’re experiencing right now is a fluctuation that’s not as serious as an ice age and it will go back to normal,” said Wright, a Republican who lives in Central Texas. “It’s like the stock exchange. It will go up, it will go up and go down and then it will go stable.”

Climate scientists have established with certainty that human activity is fueling a dangerous greenhouse gas effect that’s melting icebergs, increasing the rate of punishing storms in some parts of the world while exacerbating drought in others. At least three Pacific islands are being engulfed by sea level rise, forcing inhabitants to flee. Native American homes, sacred lands and even gravesites are being washed away in places such as Alaska and Louisiana.

In August, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said humans have altered the environment at a pace that’s “unprecedented” related to any time in history and detailed how catastrophic impacts lie ahead unless greenhouse gas emissions are cut.

According to the poll, Democrats are ready to heed the warnings made at the climate conference. An overwhelming majority, 95 percent, say climate change is serious and 75 percent say the problem is urgent. Nine in 10 Democrats say greenhouse gas regulation is needed to deal with the issue.

A 56 percent majority of Republicans, on the other hand, say climate change is not a serious problem. . . . About 7 in 10 Republicans say climate change is a longer-term problem that requires more study before government action is taken.

Ninety-three percent of Black Americans say the issue is serious, and 72 percent of Hispanics say the same. That compares to 60 percent of White Americans.

Half of Hispanic adults and 62 percent of Black Americans say global warming is an urgent problem that requires immediate government action, compared with 40 percent of White adults.

Wright, the Texas Republican, said initiatives that Biden has called for to lower greenhouse gases — more electric vehicles, reducing the use of coal and pushing renewable energy — will “destroy the lives of people who work in those industries.”

Gustave, a Democrat, took an opposite position. “We need to be grown-ups about this and stop denying it,” she said. “People have like this ostrich movement, butt up, head in the ground pretending climate change doesn’t exist. It’s not going to keep you from dying.” . . . . “I’m worried that the damage will be irreversible.”

Having moved in 2020 in part to leave a home increasingly threatened by rising sea levels, the embrace of ignorance by Republicans - which they wear as a badge of honor - is stunning.  Wore yet, it is deadly.