Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Earth Day 2015


(The Florida Everglades; photo via Huffington Post)

As President Obama visits the Florida Everglades on Earth Day 2015 to underline the dangers of global climate change, a certain subset of the population is in denial (and that's not the river in Egypt):
While notable majorities of all other political party/ideology groups say the effects of global warming will happen within their lifetime, fewer than four in 10 conservative Republicans (37%) agree, a sign of that political identity's strident skepticism on this issue.
Conservative Republicans not only decisively reject the notion that the effects of global warming will happen in this lifetime -- a position in sharp contrast to all other political identities -- but another 40% say global warming will never happen. This is significantly higher than the percentages of moderate/liberal Republicans (16%), non-leaning independents (14%), conservative/moderate Democrats (5%) and liberal Democrats (3%) who say the same.
"Skepticism" is one thing;  stubborn, ideologically-based resistance to facts and science is another.  Happy Earth Day 2015.

UPDATE I:  Leave it to Koch-endorsed employee Gov. Scott "Koch Head" Walker to mark the date appropriately.

UPDATE II:   The huge international banking house HSBC is warning its clients about investments in the fossil industry, saying investments there may become "economically non-viable."