Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 01:13 pm
A falsehood that is deliberately fabricated to masquerade as truth is a hoax, and they nearly always lack evidence and are a conscious attempt to deceive for some kind of gain. Scientists and researchers, by the nature of their work, would have difficulty perpetrating a hoax because their assertions are peer-reviewed, repeatable, and backed up by empirical data. Republicans have been accusing climate scientists of perpetrating a hoax on the American people because their supporters, corporations and big oil, will not tolerate regulations to protect the environment regardless the danger to the planet and the American people. However, recent data, record high temperatures, and devastating wildfires are the result of global climate change that proves the only hoax on the American people is that climate change is a hoax.
The devastating wildfires that have raged for weeks in Colorado, Montana and Utah have killed people, displaced thousands, and destroyed hundreds of homes, and are the result of a lighter than usual winter snowpack, scorching heat, and high winds that are a preview of the disasters human-caused climate change is bringing, and what “global warming really looks like.” The lead author of a U.N climate science panel from Princeton University said, “It looks like heat, it looks like fires, it looks like this kind of environmental disaster. This provides vivid images of what we can expect to see more of in the future.” According to Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, “climate change is a hoax and it is arrogant for people to believe human beings are able to change what god is doing in the climate.” Inhofe’s argument, although fantastical, is cover for his real motivation for refuting climate science and it is the oil and coal money pouring into his campaign, and his efforts are the tip of the iceberg.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
The Koch brothers have funded a coordinated effort to convince the American people that global climate change is a hoax, and especially President Obama’s clean energy policy including solar and wind energy. Groups like Americans for Prosperity, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and the American Tradition Institute (ATI) help the Kochs who have a vested interest in delaying, or halting climate action to continue earning their oil corporation, Koch Industries, billions of dollars. But like all of the Koch’s agendas, the American people are suffering the effects of their concerted effort to portray climate science as a hoax, and it is a serious threat to all Americans; even the one percent.
In nine American cities in the South, all-time heat records are scorching residents and NBC Washington’s chief meteorologist said “If we did not have global warming, we wouldn’t see this.” On June 29, the 100 degree surface temperatures “stretched continuously from California to the Carolinas,” according to climate change experts, and they warn that instead of the exception, it is going to be the rule from now on. Two leading experts say even a small shift in average temperatures means “the probability for ‘outlandish’ heat records increases greatly,” and it is all due to global warming that Republicans claim is a hoax. In fact, climate experts are predicting the fires raging in Colorado will be a regular occurrence due to warmer temperatures that cause bone-dry conditions. At some point, Americans suffering the effects of super-fires and extreme temperatures are going to have to come to terms with the fact that climate change is a reality and that the tipping point to blunt global warming is rapidly approaching; if not already past.
It is ironic that the states suffering most from extreme temperatures and raging fires are represented by Republicans fighting efforts to assuage climate change, and one cannot help but wonder what people suffering through extreme heat think when their Republican senators and representatives tell them what they are experiencing is a hoax. The presumptive presidential candidate, Willard Romney, has taken the position of most conservatives in denying climate change and boosting fossil fuels and promises to aid coal and oil production if elected, pare back environmental regulations, and place alternative energy on the back burner. Romney also promises to amend the Clean Air Act so the EPA cannot regulate greenhouse gas emissions like CO2, which will allow politicians and not scientists to determine what a pollutant is. It is a mystery how the 50 million Americans being put on alert for more searing heat and raging wildfires perceive a presidential candidate who promises to do his best to add to their misery, but there is no accounting for the stupidity of the American conservative.
Republicans are assaulting the American people on every possible front and it is all to enrich big oil and corporations. The notion that thousands of climate scientists from around the world are making a concerted effort to perpetrate a hoax is beyond belief, but that is the position of the oil whores in the Republican Party. The only hoax is Republicans attempting to convince Americans that climate change is not occurring. At some point, as the country burns, crops wither, and people begin dying, maybe the realization that man’s dependence on fossil fuels and corporate malfeasance, not god, is affecting the climate and if not, raging super-fires, stifling heat waves, and an American desert stretching from California to the Carolinas will not be climate scientist’s warnings, but the reality the Koch brothers, oil industry, and Republicans caused from perpetuating a hoax to increase corporate profits.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
