Editorial: Vote against climate change deniers
Monday’s presidential Iowa caucuses brought several key political issues to mind.
One issue should stand out to young voters more than any other. The Republican candidates’ collective rhetoric regarding climate change is absurd.
Sen. Ted Cruz, the winner of Monday’s caucuses, went on a national radio show late last year, saying:
“Any good scientist is a skeptic; if he’s not, he or she should not be a scientist. But yet the language of the global warming alarmists, ‘denier’ is the language of religion, it’s heretic, you are a blasphemer.”
Sen. Jim Inhofe, who Huffington Post called “the senates’ biggest climate change denier,” recently endorsed another leading GOP presidential candidate, Marco Rubio.
With the earth’s temperature rising, we as a species have no time for agenda-driven political false advertising on global warming.
Global warming is real. It is time high-profile politicians stop denying it and aligning themselves with powerful business executives who do.
Many Republicans have downplayed and in some cases openly rejected the idea climate change exists.
These people have no place holding public office.
Even presidential hopeful Ben Carson, a Yale-educated brain surgeon, has suggested the earth’s rising temperature is dramatized by the media and environmental activists.
We remind young voters to ignore propaganda and consider the facts.
The majority of scientists support the evidence behind mankind’s impact on climate change. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, 97 percent of industry professionals agree global climate change is occurring.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the decade from 2000 to 2010 was the warmest on record, and 2010 was tied with 2005 as the warmest year on record.
Here in Michigan, we are in the midst of a warmer-than-usual winter. That, in and of itself, is not proof of climate change. Nor is six inches of snow on the ground evidence climate change is made up.
During his final State of the Union address, President Barack Obama asked Americans to “call out” climate change deniers.
We are following his suggestion and asking you to join us.
We encourage you to show these politicians you won’t ignore basic facts and neither should they. This is a world we young Americans have to share for the next 70 or so years.
The international community clearly thinks climate change needs to be dealt with.
Late last year, 195 nations gathered in Paris to reach an agreement, pledging to keep worldwide emissions at a safe level.
America should be leading the conversation on sustainability. Instead, big-business controlled Republican candidates choose to rebuff rather than educate.
The collective efforts of energy tycoons David and Charles Koch is just one example of how the elite of corporate America has given at least $97 million to “the science of denial,” according to Greenpeace.
Anti-intellectualism and political business collusion is not a good look for America’s ecological image.
International agreements help, but keeping our planet healthy will always come down to individual effort.
While you do your part to helping the environment, separate the disinformation from scientifically sound evidence.
Remember which candidate is in touch with reality regarding our planet’s current state as you head to a voting booth this year.
America faces many problems this election season. Each candidate is entitled to a fundamental opinion on most subjects. This is not one of them.
Climate change is legitimate. That is no longer up for debate. We can’t afford to waste time arguing what science has proven.
Anyone who thinks otherwise does not deserve your attention.
And they certainly do not deserve your vote.
