Sunday, July 24, 2011

Pray for Rain or Is it Warm in Here

In 1948 the Boston Braves had the slogan "Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain" and in Baseball this was a reasonable plan for victory, but Prayer to fix weather conditions hasn't been a productive strategy since the Days of High Adventure...

Hysterical Raisins pointed out that last week Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin Asks Oklahomans to Pray for Rain on Sunday July 17; “I encourage Oklahomans of all faiths to join me this Sunday in offering their prayers for rain.”

Now, the response was a week of record heat across the entire United States. But, worse than the belief that we can pray for rain, is the work Faux News, the Republican Party and others are doing to undermine any effort to confront Climate Change.

As the temperatures soared last week and the drought deepened in Oklahoma and Texas, the cadre of snide climate change deniers were nowhere to be found unlike when Sean Hannity said, "Global warming, where are you? We want you back," after a large blizzard in February 2010.

Mother Jones has done the best at breaking down the Climate Change deniers and their varied throw up a screen of denial/skepticism/bullshit tactics:
A Field Guide to Climate Change Skeptics - by Kate Sheppard
The Dirty Dozen of climate Change Denial - by Josh Harkinson

Denying the fact of Climate Change is yet another litmus test for potential Republican office holders. Another No-New-Taxes Grover Norquist Pledge, another Vander Plaats Gay Marriage is bad and blacks were better off under slavery Pledge. And since confronting Climate Change poses the possibility that the GOP's owners, the Richest 1%, might lose some money from having to stop dumping tons of pollution and poisions into the environment it's easy to see why the entire Republican Party is willing to let the earth burn.

Additionally, it will be interesting to learn if the email accounts of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia which lead to Faux's months long expose of nothing were also hacked at Rupert Murdoch's insistence.

No comments: