Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumDespite Astroturf Groups & Cheap Words, GOP Stands Firm On Doing Nothing Substantive On Climate
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It wouldnt be fair to portray the Republican Party as an absolute monolith on climate a smattering of Republican officials here and there say they would like to do something on climate, even if their solutions always seem to include uninterrupted drilling and burning of fossil fuels. And the Republican electorate has complicated views on the topic. Depending on how pollsters ask them, a majority of Republicans sometimes express concern about climate and support various ideas to reduce emissions. But by other measures, Republicans have actually grown less concerned about climate in recent years.
If thats the case, it could be partly because the administration of Republican god-king Donald Trump was the most aggressively anti-environment in history. Or it could be because as you move down the funnel from vague popular notions to elite opinion and finally to policies the party supports, the closer you get to the apparent belief that conservative identity-signaling requires one to oppose doing anything at all to slow global warming.
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For instance, in 2021 natural disasters caused $145 billion in damage, a figure that included 20 separate wildfires, hurricanes, floods and storms with price tags over a billion dollars. To say the increasing frequency of such events isnt something banks need to prepare for is utterly bonkers. Yet Sen. Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the committee, is waging a crusade against (Ed. - Biden's Fed nominee Sarah) Raskin. He wrote a letter to Biden lamenting the fact that no one from the fossil fuel industry sits on the Federal Reserve Board, and saying Raskins demonstrated hostility to fossil fuels is unacceptable. The other Republicans on the committee seem to agree.
So today, the consensus Republican position appears to be that even thinking about climate change in economic policy is a threat to prosperity, a stunningly upside-down perspective on the future of the economy. Meanwhile, the more liberal position within the GOP is essentially that while climate change is real and perhaps we shouldnt actively work to make it worse, we shouldnt do much of anything to make it better either.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/16/climate-change-worsens/
Irish_Dem
(45,640 posts)They will let the people pay for the damage in lives and cash.