14 DAY TRIAL // With the selection of 100 new Republicans in the 122th Congress, things are bound to get worse as far as action against global warming and climate change goes. Researchers and analysts are skeptical that any sort of legislation will now be passed through Congress.
A worrying statistic shows that up to half of the GOP class of 2010 does not believe that man-made global warming is happening, and that a whooping 85 percent of them is opposed to approving any type of legislation on this issue.
“We have discovered that a good portion of the science used to justify 'climate change' was a hoax perpetrated by leftist ideologues with an agenda,” Indiana congressperson Todd Young is quoted as saying earlier this year.
It's very interesting to some how Republicans speak of leftist agendas when they clearly represent the interest of large oil corporations. They can easily be accused of promoting a rightist agenda as well.
With this type of ignorant attitude, which is bound to influence and motivate others as well, there is little hope for scientists and politicians who want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to pass legislation through that would ensure this happens.
Analysts believe that the new Republicans in Congress will start to investigate climate change and energy issues, in an attempt to dismantle the consensus that exists among the international scientific community on the issue.
The Republicans are also very likely to return to other energy issues, such as nuclear power and expanding the country's natural gas supplies. By and large, Republicans are stuck in their old ways, as their main goal is expanding their use of fossil fuels.
They seem to be incapable of realizing that Peak Oil is almost upon us, and that they will eventually have to get with the time, and explore alternative energy sources.
Until then, however, they are bound to do more harm than good in Congress. “I don't see much happening. The previous Congress was heavily favored to pass something regarding climate change, but nothing happened,” says John Christy.
The expert holds an appointment as a climate scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. “I doubt much on climate issues will be addressed or done – there is too much fatigue and suspicion with 'global warming' now,” he tells LiveScience.
Voices on Capitol Hill also say that the Republicans could open hearings on the so-called Climategate scandal, regarding the 1,000+ stolen e-mails that were leaked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, the UK last year.
As a side note, the e-mails were leaked just a few days ahead of an international summit on climate change, that was held in Copenhagen, so the timing of that action was suspicious at best.
Investigations found no signs of fraud in the e-mails, but climate change deniers somehow got it in their heads that the documents promoted misinformation about global warming.
Opening an investigation into Climategate “would be a very counter-productive, useless and wasteful activity that would create a side show and which fails completely to address the needed debate on what should be done about climate change,” says Kevin Trenberth.
He holds an appointment as a climatologist at the Boulder, Colorado-based National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).