There's a really interesting piece by Ron Brownstein in National Journal about how the US GOP is not only coalescing around climate denial--forcing out moderates who accepted the science--but also unique around the world in its uniform opposition to this robust body of research. Brownstein doesn't know much about the history of this, but his putting it in global context is novel:
Not only William Hague [a British Conservative and current Foreign Secretary] but such other prominent European conservatives as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have embraced that widespread scientific conviction and supported vigorous action.
Indeed, it is difficult to identify another major political party in any democracy as thoroughly dismissive of climate science as is the GOP here. Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, says that although other parties may contain pockets of climate skepticism, there is "no party-wide view like this anywhere in the world that I am aware of."
It will be difficult for the world to move meaningfully against climate disruption if the United States does not. And it will be almost impossible for the U.S. to act if one party not only rejects the most common solution proposed for the problem (cap-and-trade) but repudiates even the idea that there is a problem to be solved. The GOP's stiffening rejection of climate science sets the stage for much heated argument but little action as the world inexorably warms -- and the dangers that Hague identified creep closer.
Read the full piece here.
