This story was originally published in the Guardian, and is reproduced as part of the Climate Desk Collaboration. After an Iowa primary election that was shattered by a record-breaking blast of cold, which scientists say could have been made worse by global warming, Republican presidential candidates are more devoted than ever to the fossil fuel industry.
As part of the Climate Desk collaboration, this article, which was first published by the Guardian, is reproduced around.
Republican presidential candidates are embracing the fossil fuel industry more tightly than ever, with much to say about the growing toll the climate crisis is taking on Americans, in the wake of an Iowa primary election that was shivered in a record blast of warm weather—which scientists claim may, counterintuitively, have been made worse by global warming.
The remaining candidates for the US national nomination, including front-runner Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, and Ron DeSantis, all used the Iowa caucus to pledge that if elected, oil and gas drilling would increase dramatically and that Joe Biden’s climate change policies would be completely repealed.
On the eve of the key, Trump, who easily won the Iowa poll, declared,” We are going to drill, baby, drill,” again elected, in a Fox News town hall. The former president who was repeatedly indicted said,” We have more liquid gold under our feet, energy, oil, and gas than any other country in the world.” We could make a lot of money.
Not a second Republican is addressing the underlying causes of the global warming crisis. They were acquired by oil and gas billionaires.
Trump even referred to clean energy as a “new scam business” and went on to elaborate on the significance of energy in the production of hamburgers and donuts. The Trump campaign has charged Biden with trying to stop Americans from purchasing non-electric vehicles—there is no such ban—and also for making people’s dishes filthy by enacting new efficiency standards for dishwashers.
In the meantime, Haley used the Iowa election to promise to “roll up all of Biden’s green subsidies because they’re misplaced” and referred to the Inflation Reduction Act, his signature climate bill that offers tax credits for the production of renewable energy and the purchase of electric vehicles, as a” socialist manifesto.” On his second day in office, DeSantis, who finished second in Iowa, declared that he would “take Biden’s Green New Deal, we tear it off and we throw it in the trash can.” This nation will suffer as a result.
The world experienced its hottest temperature always last year, and scientists have issued a warning about impending disasters as temperatures continue to rise. The US experienced a record number of catastrophes last year, with damages totaling at least$ 1 billion, and the climate crisis stoked even more ferocious storms, wildfires.
However, aside from young climate activists who disrupted rallies held by Trump, Haley, and DeSantis, like worries went generally unvoiced in chilly Iowa. A 17-year-old Sunrise climate group activist interrupted Trump’s speech on Sunday to yell,” Mr. Trump, your campaign is funded by fossil fuel millionaires.” Do you speak for them or regular people like me?
Trump supporters ‘ jeers drowned her up, and the former president yelled at the activist to “go home to mommy” before shooing her off the stage. The protester, he continued, was “young and juvenile.”
According to Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of Sunrise, the Republican candidates ‘ continuing support of fossil fuels and dismissal of young people’s concerns about climate change demonstrate that they are “determined to drag us into a chaotic world only to make some more money.”
” Not a single Republican is addressing the climate crisis’s underlying causes.” Fresh climate activists were also outraged at Biden, who has oversaw a record glut of oil and gas drilling despite Democratic claims that he has hampered US energy production, according to Shiney-Ajay.
Despite the fact that millions of lives are at risk, she said,” The reality is that every presidential candidate, including Joe Biden, is falling but far short of the climate ambition we need.”
As more Americans become concerned about the effects of global warming, some Republicans have issued a warning that the party must take climate change really if it is to maintain its electoral viability. Buddy Carter, a Republican congressman from Georgia, said,” We wo n’t sit at the table when decisions are made if conservatives are afraid to talk about the climate.” We need a seat at the table because we are correct on policy.
Even so, polling has revealed that Democratic voters still place a lower priority on the climate crisis than they do on issues like the economy and inflation, with only 13 % of respondents saying it was their top priority next year. To the chagrin of some climate-conscious conservatives, none of the party’s top presidential candidates have made any attempt to drastically alter this dynamic.
In a warming world, extreme winter weather can be explained or steady, according to scientific evidence. The one does not take the additional away.
According to Danielle Butcher Franz, the head of the American Conservation Coalition’s advocacy division and a liberal climate group, Republican candidates must keep the big picture in mind during the primary season.
Beyond the key, the following Democratic nominee must appeal to young Americans ‘ hearts and minds by addressing the issue they care about the most: climate change.
Republicans need to “produce more effective rhetoric and actual policy solutions,” according to Butcher Franz. No candidate has thoroughly seized the chance to do so in the race for 2024.
As the Republican primary field moves on to New Hampshire, climate change’s effects can still be felt, even though the candidates do n’t talk about it much. Due to a blast of Arctic-like weather that has triggered power blackouts, halted flights, and forced schools to close in some parts of the country, the Iowa caucus was the coldest on record. Dryly cold temperatures have gripped many of America.
Scientists believe that the jet stream, a river of strong winds that directs weather across the northern hemisphere, and the antarctic vortex, another current of winds which typically keeps snowy Arctic air over the Arctic region, are both being impacted by the Arctic’s warming up at four times the rate of the global average. According to recent research, both of these systems run the risk of becoming “wavier,” which means that conditions that resemble the Arctic can meander much further west than usual.
According to Judah Cohen, a meteorologist at Verisk Atmospheric and Environmental who has researched the phenomenon, the latest blast of cold weather is “certainly much more plausible given how much the planet is warming.” ” In a warming world, there is scientific evidence that makes extreme winter weather consistent or explicable. One does not negate the another, though.
Although it may seem counterintuitive, the science is “becoming obvious,” according to Woods Hole Research Center climate scientist Jennifer Francis, that extreme cold spells are a result of global warming.
Francis continued,” The irony is very rich” that Iowa had to deal with such circumstances during a Democratic presidential primary. ” Of course, the deniers wo n’t perceive it that way, and no amount of science will convince them otherwise.” As part of the Climate Desk collaboration, this article, which was first published by the Guardian, is reproduced around. Republican presidential candidates are embracing the fossil fuel industry tighter than ever, with much to offer, in the wake of an Iowa primary election that was chilled in a record blast of cold weather—which scientists claim may, counterintuitively, have been worsened by global warming.
This story was originally published in the Guardian, and is reproduced as part of the Climate Desk Collaboration. After an Iowa primary election that was shattered by a record-breaking blast of cold, which scientists say could have been made worse by global warming, Republican presidential candidates are more devoted than ever to the fossil fuel industry.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/01/republican-primary-climate-change-science/
