Faith and Skepticism in Environmental Politics

Tip O’Neill wrote that “all politics is local.” Pat Buchanan disagrees, saying instead that “all politics is tribal.“ One issue that defies both men’s logic is global climate change.

Climate change has the potential to be the most consequential issue humans have ever faced; it also has the potential to be the greatest “Chicken Little” story ever told. The only thing we know for sure is that no one knows for sure.

It’s worth addressing the difference between the two poles of thought on this issue. On the left, Al Gore, backed by the liberal media, is leading a movement based on the presumption that “the scientific debate is over.” On the right, Rush Limbaugh, in concert with much of the conservative media, is far and away the most outspoken and influential figure declaring the whole thing a “hoax.” Both Gore and Limbaugh, and any who blindly follow them, pretend to know what can’t be known.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has a stake in exaggerating the severity of the problem, claims in its latest report to be 90% certain that climate change is manmade. The IPCC accepts what’s at the heart of science: skepticism.

Ideology doesn’t tolerate skepticism. Ideology, like religion, is based on faith. Joseph Farah’s WorldNetDaily, which tends to confuse ideology and religion, absolutely disputes global climate change based on God’s promise to Noah that He’d never again punish mankind with a flood. Limbaugh, who disingenuously calls global warming a (leftist) ”religion,” has argued on his radio program that “God wouldn’t let that happen.” Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter glibly ridicule the very idea of global climate change, as if they alone have perfect insight into the ways of Nature.

Considering the stakes, namely the health and prosperity of future generations, it defies both logic and morality to dismiss global climate change out of hand. Limbaugh, Hannity, and Coulter worship at the altar of the free market, making a fetish out of the Invisible Hand and aggressively defending that over-reaching ideology. Their attitudes and tactics on this issue are arrogant and reckless.

Al Gore and the extremist end of the environmental movement match the arrogance and absolutism of the right wing faithful. Defying the skepticism inherent in the scientific method, they pretend that global warming is irrefutably manmade with irrefutably severe consequences. But the science simply isn’t settled; how could it be, when global climate change theory hasn’t been around long enough to measure climate accurately, and the laboratory consists of the entire planet, atmosphere and all, along with fluctuations in the sun?

There are a few on the right who acknowledge the growing scientific consensus on climate change. Bill O’Reilly accepts climate change as highly likely; George Will accepts that likelihood, but suggests that there’s nothing we can do about it; and George Bush, after spending six years calling for more research (which he then suppressed,) has come around on the issue just in time to help salvage his legacy.

At least two of the world’s most powerful corporations–General Electric and British Petroleum–are certain enough to have made climate change a central aspect of their business models.

The liberal media want to have it both ways. They regularly report on climate change in a decidedly unskeptical way, but at the same time, they don’t portray the issue as being any more consequential than Anna Nicole’s overdose or the endless speculation on the fate of Natalee Holloway (not to mention Britney, Paris, the bleached Lindsay, and Jon Benet…if it’s blonde, it’s news.) If they truly believe what Al Gore peddles, then global climate change should lead the news most every day. Then again, if Al Gore truly believes what Al Gore peddles, he shouldn’t be consuming energy every year worth more than what the average family earns in a year.

There’s one thing the diehards both left and right share, and that’s a deep and abiding faith–faith in the gullibility of their respective constituencies.

Newsprism.com