I agree with the following statements about climate change, which are taken from a recent essay in National Affairs (a conservative publication, by the way):
“Where there is an almost universally held scientific conclusion, [people] — absent some extraordinary circumstance — should take it seriously.”
“The Republican position — either avowed ignorance or conspiracy theorizing — is ultimately unsustainable.…”
The essay also provides a good summary of the relevant science:
“[W]e should acknowledge the science as we know it today. Greenhouse gases absorb and redirect longer-wavelength radiation, but not shorter-wavelength radiation. When radiation from the sun hits the earth, some of it is absorbed by the land and the sea, which are consequently warmed by the energy. As a result, when the earth re-emits the sun's radiation in the form of heat, it is disproportionately of the lower-energy, longer-wavelength sort that the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2) foremost among them, trap or send back to earth. Thus, more carbon-dioxide emissions lead to a hotter planet. How much hotter is a complicated question that has been the subject of intense scientific inquiry over the past several decades.”
Also see Michael Gerson’s recent column in the Washington Post (Gerson is a conservative):
It’s time for conservatives to end the denial on climate change
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