If a meteor were plummeting toward the earth, would we be debating in the United States whether this is a Progressive or a Conservative problem? Then why do many people think of Climate Change (meaning anthropological climate change) as a Liberal issue?
Science tells us that humans are now the driving force in our natural climate cycle. We have put so much CO2 into the atmosphere that heat is building up on the earth. The fact that "science" was our original messenger is both good and bad news. At least we are warned and that is the good news. But "science" speaks in a language often confused by non-scientists.
When former Senator and then Vice President Al Gore began telling us the story of the Keeling curve, named after Charles Keeling, and how it showed that the CO2 content of the atmosphere was increasing sharply, the animosity of the Conservatives toward Mr. Gore placed the Climate Change issue wrongly on liberal backs.
The fossil fuel industry, like the tobacco industry did years before, began a campaign of twisting the language of "science" into the language of deceit. They knew that all it would take to slow down the clean energy era was to cause "confusion" within the public. The media (either ignorantly or knowingly, hoping for a ruckus) blithely went along with the obfuscation and spread false equivalency everywhere. One PhD was just as good as any other PhD on the subject regardless of their field or volume of peer reviewed studies.
My focus in this diary is to help readers not just understand the problem, but also to find ways they can be a part of the solution. Like it of not the meteor is on it's way, but we still have all we need to avert disaster. Stay tuned. Scott