House candidate Doug LaMalfa is the archetypal climate-denying idiot. When we talk about climate denial, especially during this heated election, and in the aftermath of the biggest storm to ever hit the East Coast, it’s so easy to focus on the obvious crazies. Like Paul Ryan, who said “fighting global warming has been a tough sell in our communities, where much of the state is buried under snow.” There’s just something dazzling about this kind of willful ignorance. So dazzling, in fact, that we now realize we’d been blinded to the real heroes of climate denial: people like Doug LaMalfa, former member of the California Senate, now running against Democrat Jim Reed to become a representative to Congress from California’s rural First District. Cleverly worded idiocy that gets ink? Not LaMalfa’s thing. But rattling off the exact same fucking jackass idiot talking points we’ve heard from all the other jackass idiots: totally his thing. It’s all so beautifully standard.
Etats-Unis : le climat pourrait peser dans la campagne électorale. Is Climate Change the Sleeper Issue of 2012? It was quite the messaging turnaround. In his September 6 acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, President Obama—whose reticence about so much as mentioning global warming has flummoxed environmental activists—used the subject to launch an unexpected attack on his opponent. "Climate change is not a hoax," the president declared. "More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They are a threat to our children's future. " In the after-speech gabfest, Politico cited the moment as one of Obama's top applause lines. Obama's shift comes as pollsters and strategists are increasingly saying that Democrats—and even perhaps some Republicans—could be using the climate issue to their political advantage, especially after a summer of drought, wildfires, and record heat.
Recent polling data make clear, however, that extreme weather is leaving Americans increasingly worried about climate change. Video clip. My Senator Denies Climate Science And Oklahoma Pays The Price. By Lisa Sharp Living in Oklahoma these past two summers has been tough. The heat wave and drought that has engulfed nearly 97 percent of the state has fueled massive wildfires, costing many their homes. The devastation doesn’t stop at Oklahoma’s borders, either. Those living outside of Oklahoma, or even outside of the drought and heat wave, will still feel the impacts of the drought. Food prices have already jumped 6 percent and corn prices are at a record high.
And it’s not just corn that is struggling; 66 percent of the United State’s hay is in drought, and 73 percent of cattle grazing land suffers from drought. Other crops are struggling around the U.S. as well. Oklahoma Senator In Denial Despite the overwhelming mounting evidence of our changing climate, many in power choose to ignore or deny it. “Climate change is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” ~Sen. Why Sen. A consequence of the current extreme weather is increased ground-level ozone.
Why Sen. Climate Change Not Mentioned In Presidential Debates For First Time In A Generation. History was made at the third and final presidential debate at Lynn University on Monday night. President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, sparred over American policy in Libya and Iran. They traded generalities on trade with China and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and made brief mentions of renewable technology and "energy independence. " But as noted by several debate watchers, climate change was never mentioned -- not by the candidates, and not by the debate moderator, Bob Schieffer of CBS News. Given the absence of the topic at the two preceding meetings between Obama and Romney, the close of Monday night's event marked the first time in roughly a generation that climate change has failed to receive an airing at any of the presidential debates.
But in the hours immediately following the debate, activists and climate scientists simply expressed a mixture of anger and disillusionment. "Climate change is a global threat that requires a global response. The Danger of Making Climate Change A Youth Vote Issue. The Pentagon has identified climate change as a significant global threat and the evidence of an overall planetary warming trend is denied by only the most radical in the conservative movement, yet the topic has barely registered this presidential election. Now, with the election just a week away the issue of climate change finally made an appearance. During a recent campaign stop at the MTV studios, President Obama told the audience that there was a significant difference between himself and Mitt Romney on climate change.
As reported by Talking Points Memo, Obama said Romney ”says he believes in climate change….but he says he’s not sure that man-made causes are the reason” As for his own views, “I believe scientists who say we’re putting too much carbon emissions into the atmosphere and it’s heating the planet and its going to have a severe effect.” The President went on to explain why he believed the issue was a significant one. “We’re not moving as fast as we need to,” Obama said. Barney Frank: GOP paid price for ‘abysmal stupidity’ on climate change - The Hill's E2-Wire. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said climate change hurt Republicans at the ballot box Tuesday because Superstorm Sandy brought increased attention to the topic.
Frank noted New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s endorsement of President Obama, which he said he made partially because of Obama’s position on climate change. The mayor said Sandy brought the election’s stakes into “sharp relief” for him. “Climate change — it brought on the endorsement of Mike Bloomberg, because one of the things the storm did was to bring climate change to the fore. So, to that extent, if Republicans got hurt because of the storm, it was because of the abysmal stupidity of their position denying climate change. And yes, so the storm did remind people how wrong they were,” Frank said on MSNBC in a Thursday night interview. But Frank also downplayed the storm’s influence, instead casting the election — which brought Democratic gains in the House and Senate — as a wider endorsement of Democrats.