History of climate change science:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_climate_change_science 1
The article linked above describes the evolution global warming science – efforts to measure the presence of man-made pollutants and greenhouse gasses, and project the potential long-term harmful impact of global warming on Earth’s climate, habitability, and food production.
Concern for global warming dates back to the 1950’s, and earlier. By the Reagan administration in the 1980’s, scientific study lead to a broad consensus of the devastating harm global warming would bring to our planet and its people if unchecked.
“A rapid climatic change may result in large scale crop failures at a time when an increased world population taxes agriculture to the limits of productivity.” (Frank Press, 7 July 1977[68]
Chief science adviser to U.S. President Carter)1
“By the 1990s, . . . a consensus position formed: greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human-caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming.” 1
The devastating impact of unchecked global warming was clearly foreseen in the 1990’s. What would you expect responsible leaders do? They would take aggressive action to combat the causes of global warming. Anything less would be short-sighted and irresponsible at best, and willful failure a manifestation of evil. Yet, refusal to act in any meaningful way has been a feature of Republican policy for the last 25 years. See articles linked below for more information.
For the past 25 years, Republicans have torpedoed every serious attempt to legislate actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to stop the advance of global warming. Now we sit at 1.2 degrees centigrade above the pre-industrial era level, with the impacts of global warming advancing ever more rapidly. It is too late to stop serious impacts of global warming – sea level rise that will make coastal areas uninhabitable; increasingly destructive hurricanes, flooding rains and paralyzing snowfall; severe drought leading to catastrophic wildfires, reduced global food production, and famine.
Still, Republicans choose inaction, complaining that the short term economic cost would be too high. Instead, they denied the science and lied to their trusting base, as they continue to do to this day. Absolute stupidity, knowing both that the fiscal cost of inaction would be orders of magnitude greater than the cost of prevention and knowing of the tremendous toll in human lives and suffering unchecked global warming would bring.
America’s global leadership used to make a difference, motivating other nations for follow suit, making the world a better place. Republican refusal to join with Democrats in taking decisive action to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions destroyed America’s global leadership role, leading to today’s failure of other nations keep their commitments to reduce greenhouse gasses.
Rational global leaders would have acted to eliminate the impacts of global warming – whatever it would take. Republicans have chosen inaction, to protect their power and profits.
This is just one aspect of the death and destruction today’s Republican Party is responsible for. Republicans are Killers!!
Do Republican policies around Global Warming – and a myriad of other issues impacting the welfare of Americans – promote “a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare”?
The obvious answer is that they do not, and in fact act AGAINST those goals.
From a Christian perspective, are Republican policies an expression of the fundamental Christian context, “Love One Another”? Or are they doing the Devil’s work? Most assuredly, the latter.
Vote for Democrats, or don’t vote at all.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_climate_change
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_climate_change_policy_and_politics
https://www.c2es.org/content/congress-climate-history/
Climate Change Is Not Negotiable: NYTimes.com Editorial
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/23/opinion/biden-climate-change.html
Why Republicans Turned Against the Environment
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/opinion/republicans-environment-climate.html