What would lead to that outcome? I'm afraid it's a paradox. What seems to me the most obvious denial killer is precisely what we're fighting over in the first place—namely, a national law in theU.S. to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, either through cap and trade or a carbon tax, or some other blended type of policy. Get that in place, and let it become the new normal, and finally, I think, your deniers would largely disappear (or be relegated to the fringe).
Why? In this scenario, there would be no more political oxygen for them to breathe. The status quo would be aligned against them, rather than for them. The lack of a policy solution is what's keeping them going and keeping them relevant; legislating one would change the terms of the debate in a way that no amount of science, and no amount of blundering on the part of deniers, could do.
...We're moving into summer, and then hurricane season, in a year that set staggering heat records in March. There's no telling what the weather will be like; but weather has always been the wild card in the climate debate, and the single most powerful agenda setter. So it may be that unpredictable events make global warming a mega campaign issue down the stretch—and finally set a serious policy solution in motion.
What an amazing statement. The House passed Waxman-Markey in June and by the end of July, congressman could not go home to townhall meeting without fear of being shouted down by angry voters and a year later Republicans took the House from the Democrates. Australia passed a law for a carbon tax and within a few months, a regional election where the Australian Labor party (ALP) had a majority swung to a staggering loss where the more conservative party outnumbered ALP by 7:1. It is truely remarkable Mr. Mooney can make this statement.
ReplyDeleteMooney is an idiot. He's got no more wisdom about "climate change" than your garden variety high school science teacher. He writes a book on how conservative brains are unwired, when his generation has done nothing to contribute to wealth or knowledge in the world except for the AGW nonsense. Desmog blog is populated with such twits.
ReplyDeleteLemon