Why the Landmark UN Climate Report Won't Change Any Right-Wing Minds

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] issued a dire climate change assessment yesterday, detailing how humans have altered the environment at an unprecedented pace and warning that the world risks increasingly catastrophic impacts if we fail to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Washington Post: "The landmark report, compiled by 234 authors relying on more than 14,000 studies from around the globe, bluntly lays out for policymakers and the public the most up-to-date understanding of the physical science on climate change. Released amid a summer of deadly fires, floods and heat waves, it arrives less than three months before a critical summit this November in Scotland, where world leaders face mounting pressure to move more urgently to slow the Earth’s warming."

The IPCC report is the most thorough study of climate change to date and members of the scientific community believe that it must spur measures to further reduce greenhouse emissions in the United States and globally. Climate activists hope that it will be the silver bullet that finally vanquishes climate change denial. Unfortunately, scientists and climate activists will be disappointed, very disappointed. There are five reasons for such pessimism.

1. The lead headline in almost every major newspaper around the world yesterday announced the IPCC report's findings, but America's conservative press completely ignored it. The major story on Fox News concerned Gov. Cuomo's misogynistic predilections, NewsMax had a wonderfully weird interview with Ted Nugent [WTF] and most other right-wing sources focused on the tyranny of masks. And just wait; by tomorrow conservatives will find a high school science teacher in Alabama who will say it's all a big hoax.

2. Climate change denial is another right-wing sacrament like guns, election fraud, and opposition to LGBT rights. With very few exceptions, you can't survive in the Republican Party if you advocate for a green energy policy.

3. If you are the type of individual who thinks that the government is putting microchips in vaccines or any of Donald Trump's laundry list of conspiracy theories, why in the world would you believe a UN sponsored climate report?

4. Conservatives in Congress and state government have been toting snowballs into committee meetings for years to "prove" that climate change is a myth. Don't expect them to apologize and admit they were wrong. That's generally not how folks get reelected.

5. We humans aren't real good at fighting distant threats, especially if it might cost us some money. And rising sea levels and more violent hurricanes aren't a top concern in Arkansas or Montana. Remember, we didn't really muster much of a response to Ozone depletion until the medical community tied it directly to a dramatic rise in skin cancers.

I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect that in 48 hours the IPCC's report will be but a distant memory, another warning ignored. I really hope I'm wrong.

#science #climatechange #research #news #politics #environment

By: Don Lam & Curated Content