You’ve undoubtedly noticed that our current summer has been noteworthy in the annals of climate change. But as I sift the latest dystopian evidence – the 23 consecutive days of 110+ temperatures in Phoenix, the floods in Vermont caused by two months worth of rain falling in only two days, the unprecedented Canadian wildfires turning skies orange in New York and Philadelphia, the record-high heat-related deaths and illnesses in national parks, the hottest-ever Florida ocean temps that are imperiling marine life, and so much more – I’m reminded of what happened to a guy named Bob Inglis.
Inglis was a Republican congressman from South Carolina; he had a 100 percent rating from the Christian Coalition and a 93 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. He was a shoo-in for re-election back in 2010…until he made the mistake of telling the truth about climate change. He later described the moment when he knew he was doomed: “I had a big tent gathering, a bunch of Republicans…And so there comes a question to me from the local Christian talk radio host, who says, ‘Yes or no – do you believe in human causation on climate change?’ I had a bad habit of answering questions, so I said yes. Boo, hiss, comes the crowd. I was blasted out from underneath the tent. There are a couple hundred, 300 people there. I mean, it was intense.”
Bye bye, career. Inglis was challenged in a Republican primary by someone who totally denied the reality of climate change. He lost in a landslide. His fate confirmed what GOPers already knew, that fealty to flat-earth batshittery was de rigueur; anyone who might be tempted to commit candor would be severely punished. Politically, Inglis never recovered from what he called his “most enduring heresy.”
So the big question today is whether the Republican party is any more enlightened about climate change than it was when Inglis got the hook 13 years ago. The climate evidence today is overwhelming, right? As Jennifer Francis, a scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, said earlier this month, “We’re seeing temperatures exceed those that can support life…All of these records are being broken left and right, and my hope is people will start to put this together in their heads.”
Are most Republicans finally putting it all together in their heads? As if. We’ve dithered away umpteen years as the climate crisis has grown ever more dire, weighed down by a political party that refuses to face reality. The only major party in the western world to disgrace itself this way.
Earlier this year, House Republicans celebrated their new (thin) majority by introducing a pro-fossil fuel energy bill, and they’ve been trying ever since to rescind billions of dollars earmarked for the Biden administration’s climate change programs – for instance, a greenhouse gas reduction fund. They’ve also been trying to block new federal incentives for clean energy projects. In the words of MAGA extremist Scott Perry (a Pennsylvania congressman whose phone has been seized by the FBI), the Biden team is trying to address “a problem that doesn’t exist.” Mike Pence, the hapless presidential candidate, simply says that “radical environmentalists” are exaggerating the climate change issue.
Even amidst our cascading climate disasters, Duh Base is still implacably allergic to science and evidence. According to a national Pew poll in April, only 23 percent of Republicans view climate change as a major threat – roughly the same share 10 years ago. (Democrats, 78 percent.) And only 13 percent of Republicans view it as a top priority issue. (Democrats, 59 percent.) Grassroots Republican hostility is part ideological (knee-jerk opposition to federal spending) and part spiritual (the religious belief that the climate is God’s business), but for all too many Republicans in Washington, the motivation is what it has long been: Monetary.
The campaign contribution stats tell the tale. The GOP is a wholly owned subsidiary of the fossil fuel industry. Oil and gas interests routinely give 8 to 10 times more money to Republican candidates than they do to Democratic counterparts. In the 2022 midterms, 17 of the top 20 recipients were Republicans (the exceptions were two Texas Democrats and Joe Manchin). The fossil fuel industry’s largesse is one reason why we have a buffoon like Ron Johnson (the fifth highest Senate recipient, who said back in April that climate change will be good for America because it will be less cold: “Global warming will actually be beneficial…Why wouldn’t we take comfort in that?…Y’know, concerned if you’re in the hot region of Africa …but we’re in good shape.”
And if a twice- (and potentially thrice-) indicted presidential candidate somehow wins in 2024, rest assured that the nascent progress of the last few years, via climate programs in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will be rolled back in favor of planet-warming emissions. And the latest “now or never” warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a coalition of hundreds of top climate experts worldwide, will be summarily ignored.
The only solution, the only way to at least address (if not solve) our climate emergency, is to oust the flat-earthers currently in power and to thwart the criminal defendant who’s running to stay out of jail. Because those people are irredeemable and there’s no time to waste. As candor casualty Bob Inglis lamented a decade ago, “You can’t build a credible conservative movement when you’re trying to hold back facts.”