I’m watching a House of Representatives hearing on climate change legislation on c-span.org — it is the most recent in a long string of such hearings that has incorporated the entire week. Former vice president Al Gore and former senator John Warner, a Republican who urges action on climate change, have just delivered extraordinary statements. Gore listed study after study that are already finding real, concrete effects of climate change. He supplied the assembled lawmakers with as much science as they could possibly want. The much older Warner spoke of growing up during the Great Depression and WWII, and the courage and inspiration that were required to meet the challenges of that time. He argued that fighting back climate change requires the same qualities today. Listening to these two men makes it’s hard not to think a cultural shift has occurred and we’re finally on our way to a real solution.
And then you stumble on something like the video below, and you realize why a solution has been and will continue to be so immensely difficult. Below is a man who does not care about Gore’s science or Warner’s call to duty. Below is a man who has found text in the Old Testament that says God, not man, will determine the end of the world, and because that text is infallible in his view all this business about global warming is a bunch of hokum.
That’s Rep. John Shimkus. And in case it’s not clear how he feels about global warming from the video, he said earlier this week, “I think [climate change legislation] is the largest assault on democracy and freedom in this country that I’ve ever experienced. I’ve lived through some tough times in Congress — impeachment, two wars, terrorist attacks. I fear this more than all of the above activities that have happened.” That’s not just kind of nutty. It’s dangerous.
