Here’s Why
In 1988 Dr. James E. Hansen testified to the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Dr. Hansen was then a prominent forty-seven year old astronomer, physicist, and climate scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He presented clear evidence that carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution had already started to raise the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. He rather naively expected that Congress, presented with clear scientific evidence, would soon act to reduce the mining and burning of carbon fuels.
Instead, Congress has done very little (until the Biden administration’s recent efforts) and atmospheric carbon dioxide has steadily increased. Year after year we record higher average global temperatures and ever wilder weather events, while Republicans line up to reject all efforts to address the underlying cause. At no time in our history have Republicans be more stridently opposed to any effort to limit carbon burning—and it is not just a matter of money. It is a matter of worldview.
I grew up in the fifties and sixties, the age of Sputnik, reading about the stars and planets, of worlds with different atmospheres than that of earth, and of vast spans of time through which, on earth, continents had slowly drifted while a myriad of plants and animals had lived, died, and been buried in deposits that very slowly became coal, oil, and natural gas. In college I was introduced to the concept that the earth’s atmosphere also changed over vast spans of time as plant photosynthesis pulled carbon dioxide from a CO2-rich atmosphere to construct those plants and animals that later became coal, oil, and natural gas. Over millions of years the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere drifted downward as carbon was “banked” in these deposits. The early greenhouse effect slowly diminished and earth’s climate slowly cooled. The key concept is that all this happened over hundreds of millions of years, a rate slow enough for species to adapt.
In 1988 Dr. Hansen, addressing the Senate, was trying to make the point that by digging up and burning this fossilized carbon bank over the tiny span of time of the last one hundred and fifty years, mankind is releasing CO2 back into the atmosphere at a jarringly rapid rate. The rapid build up of CO2 results in ramping up the earth’s temperature and the climate—a change so rapid as to exceed plants and animals capacity to adapt.
I was brought up in the Methodist tradition. My mother read Biblical stories to me from an early age. When I noted that the Biblical Creation Stories (there are two) seemed to be in conflict with the science I was reading, my parents explained that the Creation stories were to be taken as instructive allegory rather than literal truth. I was aware that some Fundamentalist/Evangelical Christians continued to believe in a literal seven day Creation Story and in an entire earth history encompassing only six to ten thousand years. Even so, I was sure that the overwhelming majority of Christians accepted the burgeoning scientific evidence amassed in the centuries since the Age of Enlightenment.
In February 2015 U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) famously (and with prideful ignorance of the distinction between weather and climate) brought a snowball to the floor of the Senate—in winter—as evidence that the planet is not warming. Many assumed that Senator Inhofe was financially captive to the oil companies that dominate Oklahoma—but there is a far more basic reason for his stance. Inhofe said, “Climate is changing and climate has always changed and always will. There is archaeological evidence of that, there is biblical evidence of that, there is historical evidence of that.” Note that absence of any timeframe. Then he tellingly added, “There are some people who are so arrogant to think they are so powerful they can change climate.” As a Fundamentalist Christian, Senator Inhofe projected arrogance on anyone whose understanding of geologic time reaches farther back than Noah’s Flood.
Senator Inhofe’s statements are classic modern-day Republican rhetoric, acknowledging the obvious—that climate (weather) changes—while denying that the actions of mankind could possibly be responsible—and legislating based on that denial. Mentally hemmed in by Fundamentalist Christian doctrine, mankind’s actions—or inactions—changing the climate is for these people an unthinkable, arrogant idea.
Somewhere on Facebook a stalwart of the SpokaneGOP interjected, “God is in charge of climate change,” an echo Inhofe’s worldview. These days, when you scratch the surface of many Republicans the first thing you find is a Fundamentalist Christian, the majority of whom have little or no concept of geologic time and many of whom subscribe to young earth creationism, a set of beliefs that makes it impossible to comprehend the threat of global heating—which is based in part on the rapidity with which we are ramping up the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
I was right years ago about a majority of Americans accepting post Enlightenment science, but the number who cling to a form of young earth creationism based on a literal interpretation of ancient stories remains startling—and these people are the backbone of the modern-day Republican Party. A 2017 Gallup creationism survey found that 38 percent of adults in the United States held the view that “God created humans in their present form at some time within the last 10,000 years or so” when asked for their views on the origin and development of human beings.
The next time you hear a Republican answer a question about the importance of climate change and their answer begins with something like “Of course the climate is changing” your followup should be “Do you think the earth is closer to six thousand or hundreds of millions of years old?” You should assume their understanding of the world and of science is limited by a bedrock young earth creationist belief system that soothes the believer in the conviction that fossil fuels were put in the ground by God for the sole benefit of mankind. From that viewpoint, of course, it would be arrogant to think that humans by their actions can affect the climate. After all, “God is in charge of climate change.”
These people are the base of the modern day Republican Party. They are the same folks who who want their particular brand of “Christian” government in which women aren’t allowed to make their own reproductive decisions, a government that declares a woman’s life and health is worth less than a fertilized egg.
We face stark choices in this year’s elections—principal among them is whether or not we will leave a habitable planet to our children and grandchildren—Republicans are universally on the wrong side of this issue, nationally, statewide, and locally. Vote your future accordingly.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
P.S. It is not my intent to demean the people whose bedrock beliefs I describe in this post. I believe they are misguided, shielded by family, by cult, or circumstance from a rational understanding of science, but that doesn’t keep them, necessarily, from being people with whom I am happy to share the world. I draw the line when they strive—as a minority—to take the reins of government, jeopardize the habitability of our planet, and impose their narrow beliefs over hard-won freedoms I have fought to gain and retain my whole life. That is precisely the threat we face in the upcoming elections.
P.P.S. Donald Trump is often quoted as saying “Climate change is a hoax” and advocating all manner of increase in the digging up and burning of fossil fuels. In his four years in the White House he tried hard to open up public lands to oil and gas exploration. If returned to the White House this fall he will have staff and tools at hand to complete the task, thanks to his staffers’ Heritage Foundation Project 2025. Click that link, then hit “COMMAND F” and insert search words like “renewable energy” or “oil” or “climate change.” Read a little around each mention to understand the magnitude of the reverse revolution Republicans are prepared to enact.
P.P.P.S. James Inhofe died last week at age 89. An extensive obituary, including his anti-climate advocacy, is available in the New York Times.