The Best Way to Deal with Climate Change Deniers: RIDICULE!

Ridicule — it worked against the GOP’s War on Women.  There’s a reason that there’s no such person as “Senator Todd Aiken” or “Senator Richard Mourdock.”  Clueless mean-spirited comments about rape victims derailed the Senate campaigns of both of those morons.  And they were both way ahead in the polls before they uttered their bone-stupid comments.

According to this column by Joel Connelly, ridicule would be equally effective against the Koch Brothers’ useful idiots.  Turn them into national and global laughingstocks.

You’re familiar with the fossil fuel industry’s talking points.  “It snowed last night.  What’s this ‘global warming’ you’re talking about?”  “Climate change is a hoax perpetrated by scientists so they can keep getting funding from [the Trilateral Commission, the Illuminati, whoever].”  “The science is unclear; the results aren’t conclusive.”  Etc.  Shine the spotlight on these dickwads.  Make ‘em squirm.

Senator Brian Schatz (D—Hawaii) said:

“The power of ridicule should be deployed here.  You have to get to the point where a major candidate for public office is disqualified when he or she denies climate science.”

Jon Carson, head of Organizing for Action, said:

“When a Republican or a Democrat says something crazy on climate, we should be ready to hold them accountable as progressives did on human biology.”

As the linked article says:

“By contrast, Republican presidential candidates in 2012 made all manner of unsubstantiated, often off-the-wall statements about climate.  The national media greeted such hot talk with glacial indifference, and has treated alarming climate news in the same fashion.”

This needs to change.  Some high-profile teabaggers have made statements denying climate change that are every bit as absurd as Todd Aiken’s and Richard Mourdock’s rape comments.  While the state of Texas burns and evaporates, Rick Perry describes climate change as “a contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight,” and says scientists have “manipulated data so that they will have money rolling into their projects.”

Want Michele Bachmann’s take on climate change?  Come on, you know you do:

“Nancy Pelosi is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said she’s just trying to save the planet.  We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago.  The Lord saved the planet — We didn’t need Nancy Pelosi to do that.”

Alaska’s permafrost is melting and the Arctic icepack has receded to a record low.  In response, Alaska Rep. Don Young says: “I think this is the biggest scam since Teapot Dome.”

The political climate needs to shift to where anyone who makes a statement similar to the above three examples will not have a prayer of getting elected to ANY public office.

Joel Connelly concludes with:

“Progressives have seen several of their movements ‘go viral’ in the past year, same-sex marriage and the need for immigration reform as prime examples.  It hasn’t happened — yet — with climate . . . despite global heat waves, ‘superstorms,’ melting glaciers and shrinking snow packs, the shrinking Arctic ice pack, dying forests, and ‘drunken trees.’”