Politicians Diminishing COVID-19 Threat Are Also Denying Climate Change
President Donald Trump in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
One of the biggest obstacles to Louisiana’s plan to save its sinking coast from the rising Gulf of Mexico has been the steady denial of climate science by almost all Republicans from President Donald Trump to those representing parishes most rapidly being swamped (See: Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson).
Well, if anyone doubts where that GOP war on climate science will lead Louisiana in a few decades, they need only look at the results of the party’s resistance to medical science (No masks! Open schools!) in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic in just six months.
Some current highlights:
- 4.8 million infections — 25% of the planet’s total from a nation with just 4% of its population;
- 160,000 deaths — with Americans currently dying at a rate 15 times faster than citizens in the European Union or Canada, according to sites tracking deaths worldwide;
- the worst unemployment since the Great Depression;
- a nation long respected as the leader of the free world now such a global pariah its citizens are banned from setting foot in most western nations.
This war against is motivated mainly to save businesses profits they will lose by reducing services or closing. But it has been sold to voters by appealing to one of the most basic and destructive of human impulses: selfishness.
It’s classic demagoguery that goes like this:
“They” are trying to disrupt your lives and cause you inconvenience for no reason. “We” will oppose that.
In these cases “They” is science and anyone who supports it, and “We” is Donald Trump and your local GOP politician.
That message echoes in their opposition to the science-based treatments for both crises.
They oppose simple science-based rules such as wearing masks and social distancing, just as they fought using energy-efficient light bulbs and using renewable energy to reduce the carbon emissions causing global warming.
They are denying the scientific findings that refusing simple virus-fighting steps has led to increased rates of sickness and death, just as they deny the mountain of science proving their refusal to reduce emissions from fossil fuels has led to accelerating sea level rise and more destructive hurricanes.
They oppose the more painful antivirus measures such as closing and schools because it will cost them money, the same reason they have blocked higher fuel economy standards and tighter emissions regulations needed to slow global warming.
The science in both cases is proven, but Trump and most other GOP politicians say, “Trust us, not the experts in those fields.”
