The GOP's anti-science climate zombies claimed their first victim late this week, with House Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-OH) announcing his intent to shut down the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming when Republicans take control of Congress in January.
Rep. Boehner claims he is wielding the axe in order to "save several million dollars" by shoving the climate issue back into the exclusive purview of the House Committee on Science and Technology. In fact, Boehner is proving to the public that the GOP fails to recognize the serious consequences for America's economy, national security, public health and future generations posed by climate change.
While the Democratic leadership of the waning 111th Congress failed to get legislation passed into law to address climate change, the House global warming committee, led by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), convened dozens of important hearings and briefings featuring top climate scientists and national security experts to educate Congress and the public about the need for swift action to secure America's energy independence, create clean energy jobs and mitigate climate change emissions. Markey's committee also played a key role investigating the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, demonstrating its role as an important polluter watchdog in Congress.
With climate issues now shoe-horned into the House Committee of Science, there is simply no way climate change will receive the critical focus it deserves, since climate science will compete with all other scientific matters for attention from Congress.
As Chris Mooney noted on DeSmogBlog this past week, the partisan divide over climate change science is set to severely undermine efforts to deal with the greatest threat facing humanity. The GOP, Mooney says, "has drifted farther and farther away from the scientific community," with only a small number of moderate Republicans remaining who respect science, particularly the scientific consensus on climate change.
While incoming House Speaker John Boehner thinks he's saving millions of dollars with this move, the fact is the GOP's climate science denial could cost the U.S. economy billions, perhaps trillions, in lost opportunities to lead the clean energy future and in growing economic burdens created by climate disruption.
Rather than 'saving' us, the GOP is setting the country on a dangerous course of inaction and active obstruction, leaving the rest of the world to wonder whether the U.S. is headed toward total scientific illiteracy and denial under Republican leadership.
Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.
There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.
You don't see this every day. President Barack Obama used Twitter today to call out climate deniers in Congress who are blocking political action to address climate change. 
The tweet links to this video released by Organizing for Action, the 501(c)(4) campaign group that promotes the President's national agenda.
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Comments
It's over.....
The lack of comment over here at desmogblog lead me to think the public have lost interest.
Different circumstances
There has been a change in the monitoring at this site, so that many trolls and spammers are gone. But when you post a comment, it may not appear for several days, which works against having a prolonged conversation.
Just because the public does not make comments does not mean they are not reading.
Working on fixing this
That will help
It was great getting rid of Rob & his ilk, but it seemed that the moderation went too far! Time to get some lively conversation going again . . .
Predictable
When you find yourself uncomfortably placed by scientific argument what do you do? Muzzle the scientists.
Useful list of GOPhers:
http://climateprogress.org/2010/11/19/the-climate-zombie-caucus-of-the-112th-congress/
where the link to:
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/climate-zombie-caucus/#oh08boehner
reveals more on Boehner:
Rep. John Boehner (R-OH-08): George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide.
I think it is clear that the GOP showed themselves up in the recent House Science Committee Hearing, with a couple of notable exceptions, as exemplified by Dana Rohrabacher in his exchange with Richard Alley, found here:
http://climatecrocks.com/2010/12/02/rohrbacher-and-alley-bluster-vs-brain/
The following found at ThinkProgress above:
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA-46): Too often, when congress is asked to pass environmental legislation, the legislation is based on emotional junk science rather than data based on reproducable, rigorous, tested, peer-reviewed results. In no area has this been more obvious than climate change. Because the Kyoto Treaty and much of the suggested environmental legislation would decimate jobs in southern California, constituents may be interested to learn of the growing scientific consensus that global warming is not manmade, if it is in fact even occuring.
Rohrabacher who also said:
“We don’t know what those other cycles were caused by in the past,” he said at a February 2007 hearing. “Could be dinosaur flatulence, you know, or who knows?”
Rohrabacher looks pleased with his own cleverness! Pah! Homer Simpson has more up top.
Very difficult to argue against stupid, but we all have to try.