Perry the Climate Denier

Governor Rick Perry of Texas said he does not believe in climate change. 

I don’t believe him.

I believe saying something as ignorant as that is a strategic move by his campaign via the master strategists at the Republican National Committee (RNC).  

The tactic is this: have Perry say something that the true Republican climate deniers and conspiracy theorists want to hear. Even the Republican middle responds to it. These are not scientists but regular people who cannot help but listen to a handful of fake scientists spreading doubt on industry’s tab.

It plays out like this: When Perry says he does not believe in human-caused global warming, these Republican voters gravitate toward him. When he does not get the Republican nomination for president, and he subsequently endorses the actual nominee, the people who were drawn to Perry for his ridiculous comments now accept and support the actual Republican nominee. 

If not a strategy of the RNC, then Perry’s public denial at least keeps his constituents – the petroleum industry – happy.  If the dirty fossil fuel industry, deeply entrenched in his Lone Star state, is happy, the money continues to flow Perry’s way.

So Perry is not serious when he says he does not believe in global warming.  And that’s the issue right there.

America needs serious people. People who are sincere about solving our complex problems rather than those interested in political posturing, shameful turf squabbling, and obstructionist tactics just so the opposition also accomplishes nothing.

It is hard to take Perry seriously, afterall, this is the guy who says he wants Texas to secede from the Union.

But to give Perry the benefit of the doubt, the only other explanation for Perry’s climate-denying statement is that he is challenged by facts.

The amount of carbon has increased because of humans burning fossil fuels.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) put it this way in 2007:  "The marked increase in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) since 1750 is the result of human activities.”

We know that climate change is happening.

In May 2009, scientists from the national academies of science for all G8 plus 5 additional countries signed off on a statement that included this: “Climate change is happening even faster than previously estimated; global CO2 emissions since 2000 have been higher than even the highest predictions, Arctic sea ice has been melting at rates much faster than predicted, and the rise in the sea level has become more rapid. We know that ice is melting at the poles we know that the pace of change is unprecedented, “

If I were Perry I’d claim ignorance. Oh that’s right, he already did.