Standing Out

Republicans Reject Science

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Any real thinkers
left in the GOP?

Americans admire strong independent thinkers unafraid to stake out their own position. Taking positions that defy reason are another matter. We respect thinkers--there's little to admire about ignorant adamance, or about sycophants that all agree with another due to peer pressure or an unthinking urgency for tribal identification.

Republicans in this country are coalescing around a uniquely dismissive position on climate change. The GOP is stampeding toward an absolutist rejection of climate science that appears unmatched among major political parties around the globe, even conservative ones

[snip]

Indeed, it is difficult to identify another major political party in any democracy as thoroughly dismissive of climate science as is the GOP here. Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, says that although other parties may contain pockets of climate skepticism, there is "no party-wide view like this anywhere in the world that I am aware of."

All credible reviews of the science come to the same conclusion: climate change is real, human activity is a key cause of it, and the damage being done is serious and warrants urgent attention. Conservatives all over the world accept this and are seeking solutions, yet here in the US our conservatives pretend there isn't even a problem to be solved.

Standing out? Outliers from the realm of reason.