Climate change deniers continue to refuse support for going green at earth's peril

Tar sands risks

Melinda Owens---The naysayers on the issue of man’s contribution on climate change continue to interrupt the progress of moving forward to improve environmental concerns that continue to threaten the earth’s climate.

Rep. Henry Waxman, Democrat of the 33^rd District of California,  asserts there is a  “climate disconnect” between the increasingly warmer earth temperatures and how congressional representatives vote, who reject science and cast their votes against science, as reported by the League of Conservation Voters.

Scientists continue to warn governments and individuals that climate change is seriously impacting weather patterns that produce more powerful storms, record heat waves, water shortages and flooding all over the world.

Check here to see your Congressman’s voting record.

This is an old story, denying climate change, as Republicans asserted that it was either not occurring or not happening as a result of anything done by man.    At the heart of the dissension is a Republican Party strategist named Frank Luntz, who said in a leaked memo,  ‘The scientific debate is closing [against us] but not yet closed. There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science.’

Jim Jeffords  left the Republican Party in 2001 over the issue of climate change, referring to Luntz’ remarks as “outlandish” and asserting , 'They have a head-in-the-sand approach to it. They're just sloughing off the human health impacts - the premature deaths and asthma attacks caused by power plant pollution,' Jeffords said.

The denials, more than ten years ago, that were initiated years before at the outset of the Repbulican Party’s victory for the Presidency in 2000, meant years of the public’s hearing there were two sides to the climate change debate.    Today that debate continues, even as scientists remind us that the earth will see more and more rapid change in climate conditions that will inevitably create increasingly devastating weather events, even as many congressional members refuse to support efforts to do anything about it.



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Melinda Owens is an environmental activist from the Midwest who has advocated for environmental responsibility for more than 25 years.