Anthropogenic effects on climate change? GONE!! Legislated away by the BRILLIANT (as always) Republicans in the North Carolina legislature. WHY in the hell didn't we think of doing this a long time ago??!!?
I don’t know whether to laugh, or cry. Sometimes the complete idiocy (and greed) of human beings initiates both reactions at the same time. Take the case of North Carolina law makers this week…
If you haven’t seen it, take the time to watch Stephen Colbert’s slant to this story. It seems that a North Carolina coastal economic development group isn’t happy with scientists. Darn pesky scientists…they had the GALL to predict that sea level rise would be greater than 3 feet by 2100. It makes it a LOT harder to sell coastal real estate or convince companies to locate on the North Carolina coast, when all the evidence and science in the world points to that land being underwater in 50 or so years.
So…the economic development group has partnered with Republican (of course!) lawmakers in the state to basically outlaw science!! The businesspeople and Republican lawmakers simply are saying that scientists are wrong, and that you should ONLY look at what’s happened in the past, to predict future climate change. None of this fretting over CO2 levels that just reached 400 ppm!! No fretting about accelerating warming in the polar regions that will melt ice like butter in a blast furnace!! Nah….it’s the REAL ESTATE industry that REALLY knows climate science!!!
So, they’re crafting legislation that would effectively legislate away climate change science! They would make it North Carolina LAW that any climate projections affecting policy in the state would assume that sea-level rise will simply occur at historical levels, and won’t accelerate as global warming ramps up.
Simple! Problem solved! We scientist…SO, so silly, worrying about gathering evidence, analyzing the data, and spitting out facts and figures. All we really need to do is legislate science away! Think of the possibilities! What if the Yellowstone caldera should get frisky and threaten to erupt again? No need for scientists to study it…just pass a law outlawing the volcano from erupting! Giant asteroid headed on a collision course with earth? No problem!! Just legislate it away!!
Unbelievable. It DOES perfectly represent what the Republican Party represents, however. After all, we CAN’T have science interfere with real estate and business! If science is butting heads with business interests, is there ever ANY doubt on which side of the argument Republicans will land? We’ve seen this story a hundred times in other forms…fracking and polluting water supplies, endangered species habitat vs. development, air quality vs. power company lobbyists…it’s the same story every time. What’s so pathetic is that I’m sure Republican VOTERS in North Carolina are swallowing this hook, line, and sinker, and APPLAUDING their hillbilly legislators for this bold move.
To laugh? Or to cry? With each move Republicans make like this, it’s getting harder and harder to laugh about it.
I KNOW!!! It’s so incredibly bizarre. Of all the things we humans think we control, the natural world is probably the farthest beyond us and the most dangerous to us.
I mean, really: Scientists told us what is true, but that is bad for business, so we’ll get Our Legislators to pass a law saying the scientists are liars.
Just f*ckin’ nuts!