Deutsche Welle - Are US Republicans Finally Waking Up To The Climate Crisis?
In February, 25 Republican lawmakers got together in Utah, to meet youth party members and environmental groups and brainstorm a conservative approach to tackling the climate crisis. But it was something of a clandestine meeting,with some politicians only attending after organizers promised they would stay anonymous. That's how sensitive this subject still is in the Republican Party post-Trump. The former president called human-caused climate change "a hoax," withdrew from the Paris Agreement and railed against water-conserving showerheads that failed to keep his hair perfect.
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Among Republicans younger than 40, a majority is concerned about the changing climate, opinion polls show. By contrast, 65% of Republican baby boomers have said climate change was not an important concern to them. This age gap was illustrated in Miami in June, when the ACC held a rally dubbed "the first conservative climate protest in the US." Speakers had to shout over heckling by a group of older men who waved signs reading: "There is no climate crisis."
Staunch climate denial is still seen in the rhetoric of Republican lawmakers, too. When large parts of Texas lost power in frigid weather last winter, Republican Governor Greg Abbott falsely blamed solar and wind energy. And when President Joe Biden announced his goal of cutting greenhouse emissions in half at a climate summit earlier this year, some Republicans and right-wing media stoked resistance by spreading misinformation suggesting the president planned to restrict meat consumption.
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Republicans in Congress are against Biden's climate plan to phase out fossil fuels. And many climate scientists are also skeptical about the solutions conservatives have proposed. Planting trees and carbon sequestration will not be enough, according to Rachel Cleetus, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "There are limits to how much we can rely on these natural carbon sinks," she said. "That's why we have to get to the core of the problem, which is fossil fuel dependence. We cannot get distracted." Scientists also point out that purely market-based efforts to cut emissions have often failed to make an impact. "The US is making some significant progress in the direction of cutting emissions. Almost all that progress is not coming from the market, but from mechanisms that are in place through regulation," said David Victor, director of the Deep Decarbonization Initiative at the University of California San Diego. And Cleetus isn't impressed by comparisons with China. "I think this is not a moment where responsible nations can point at each other and try to evade responsibility," she said.
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https://www.dw.com/en/are-us-republicans-finally-waking-up-to-the-climate-crisis/a-59215389
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