Even members of Congress should know it's not safe to play with fire. Or deadly heat waves. Or droughts, wildfires, record floods and landslides.
All of those things are getting worse because of climate change, scientists say, and it's not wise to hide from reality by sticking one's head in the metaphorical sand — sand that is getting ever hotter.
Yet, according to a new Center for American Progress analysis, 123 members of Congress simply deny the science of climate change. Among those the Center cited are Illinois Republican Reps. Mike Bost, Darin LaHood and Mary E. Miller. These are elected officials who are supposed to be working night and day to protect the rest of us from the worst effects of climate change.
Not surprisingly, many of the congressional climate deniers have pocketed big sums in "anti-climate money" that includes money from industries benefiting from burning fossil fuels, which releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and warms the planet. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tops the list with donations totaling more than $5 million. Bost, LaHood and Miller received donations of $349,821; $322,650; and $29,048, respectively.
Would America have succeeded in its past triumphs, such as winning world wars, if its leaders had instead simply denied the wars were even taking place? And all the while accepting cash from those who had an interest having the leaders look the other way?
Millions of Americans have sweltered in heat waves this summer, and it's only mid-July. June was the Earth's hottest month on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as were each successive month over the previous year. A new study by the Department of Earth System Science at the University of California-Irvine and the University of Michigan Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering concluded that existing climate models underestimate how fast sea ice and the Greenland ice sheet are melting. In Dubai, heat indexes topped 140 degrees last week, temperatures in Death Valley hit 120 degrees, and Illinois this year has had double its normal number of tornadoes.
Extreme weather has happened before, but such events are happening more often and sometimes more severely than in the past. Global temperatures have gone up and down in the past, but never this quickly, making it hard or impossible for some species to adapt.
Many people who think they have dodged the ravages of climate change are finding they are not immune. Homeowners insurance is shooting up in many states to the point people can't afford it. Wildfires burning hundreds of miles away can downgrade air quality in Chicago. Damage to crops shows up as higher prices at the grocery store or even as scarcity. Global stock valuations could suffer significantly. A new study by Stanford University and Resources for the Future reports only 55% of Americans think global warming will "hurt them a moderate amount." Those who don't believe it are in for a rude surprise.
Amid all this, what are the climate deniers up to? Project 2025, a 920-page manifesto drawn up by former officials in the Trump administration and the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation, calls for more oil drilling in the Arctic and Gulf of Mexico and encouraging more drilling on public lands by vastly reducing fees. It even wants to get rid of NOAA, along with the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, laws that have spurred a heartening amount of investment in solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles. The Republican National Convention last week adopted a platform calling for America to "DRILL, BABY, DRILL," while ignoring climate change.
All this threatens to slow, halt or even reverse enormous progress in energy efficiency, making solar and wind energy cheaper, improving battery storage and developing new technologies. If Project 25 becomes the ruling model of the next administration, get ready for more weather events of increased severity and perhaps more areas of the planet becoming inhospitable.
When powerful people deny climate change, it threatens to rob the Earth's inhabitants of a chance to avoid climate catastrophe by enacting sensible national policies. The members of Congress who continue in their denials are shirking their responsibility to recognize facts and act on them.
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