Please, refrain from making any hot air jokes. This is a good thing that's happening.
Lawmakers this session have filed more bills to assess the effects global warming will have on the state and to curb the pollution causing it than at any other time in legislative history, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis.A dozen measures, all but one carried solely by Democrats, specifically address the issue of global warming.
The bills range from studying how a predicted rise in the Earth's temperature will affect the state and its water resources, to requiring industrial plants to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases believed to be causing the warming trend.
"We have reached a real tipping point in the public's understanding of the issue and the scientific consensus. I don't think there is any question now that it has reached Texas," said Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, one of 10 lawmakers with legislation.
While even the sponsors say most of the bills have little to no chance of passage, the move is still significant because it signals that Texas -- the country's largest source of heat-trapping gases -- has officially joined the global warming policy debate.
"More states are getting involved, including some states that a year or two ago we didn't think would be involved in this issue," said Barry Rabe, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan.
from:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-mooney/why-republicans-distrust-_b_44254.html
Why Republicans Distrust Mainstream Climate Science
By Chris Mooney
snip
1. The broad and longstanding conservative distrust of academia and "leftwing" campus intellectuals, including scientists. This allows many Republicans to dismiss large bodies of scientific research as essentially politicized and therefore safe to ignore.
2. The growth of ideological think tanks which provide alternative "facts" and alternative "knowledge" tailor-made for conservatives. It's not just that many Republicans reject mainline "science"; they actually have their own.
3. The growth of a rightwing media that quotes the think-tank "experts" and puts them on the air regularly--so that the sealed off alternative knowledge environment becomes complete and very hard for mainstream science to penetrate (especially when scientists themselves do not speak in a language designed to appeal to political conservatives).
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So, what do the GOP do to remedy their fear of True Science...Create False Science which is Super Politicized and pushed through their Media, which is True Marketing, not True Science.
Republicans, your leaders have been misleading you on many topics, but none so important as Climate Crisis. By following a false science, everyday it becomes harder and harder to reverse this Climate Crisis which can reach a tipping point, a saturation point and become Climate Collapse. We have to do the right thing before that happens.