What if a Republican Had Made "An Inconvenient Truth"?

The reality and seriousness of global warming is recognized by virtually all serious scientists and by all international and national scientific organizations. The vast majority of people in most countries are also aware of the problem and many of these are pushing for their governments, and for the international community, to take action. The United States stands out, unfortunately, as having one of the largest constituencies of deniers of global warming.

The majority of Americans do understand global warming and want their government to do something about it, but a surprising 41 percent of Americans think the threat is exaggerated (or simply "fake"). Even more frightening, this number has been growing over the past 10 years. It seems that as the evidence has increased, the disbelief has also increased. Even worse is that this constituency has many very powerful, rich and influential people in it, including many Senators and Members of Congress. This constituency was also widely represented in the previous administration, including the President and Vice-President. Many powerful companies and organizations are spending millions to cast doubt on global warming in the media, and are lobbying to prevent legislation to do anything about it.

This situation seems as though it may have been worsened by the fact one of the main educators and public proponents of action on global warming is a member of the Democratic party, and a previous presidential candidate, namely Al Gore. Mr Gore's work has been very helpful in educating the public, but his involvement may, unfortunately, have had a negative impact. It appears to have strengthened the idea of global warming being a partisan issue. That is, because a Democrat was talking about global warming, Republicans must reject it. Indeed, the above poll shows that 66 percent of Republicans are skeptical about global warming, while only 22 percent of Democrats are, and this divide has increased dramatically over the past 10 years.

Most of the world rightly looks at this as madness. Science is just science and facts are just facts, they have no ideological designs. Unless you like in the United States of America, apparently. In America, global warming has become an ideological battleground. If you believe in global warming, you are on the left, therefore if you are on the right, you must not believe in it.

This suggests an interesting thought experiment. What if a Republican had been campaigning and trying to educate people about global warming for the past 10 years? What if a Republican had made a movie like An Inconvenient Truth? Perhaps someone such as Representative Roscoe Bartlett? Would we still have such a majority of Republicans thinking global warming is a scam? Or would the situation then be reversed so that a majority of Democrats instead would deny global warming? Interesting, though depressing, to think about.

As Copenhagen approaches, we have one of our last best chances to turn things around. If we don't, perhaps things will end up like in the new documentary The Age of Stupid. Will petty ideological bickering drive the train off the tracks? The American ideologues are, without a doubt, a bunch of self destructive bastards.