why are conservatives trying to deny global warming?

Question

i was just listenign to the radio.. tha conservative talk show station and these peope were all saying ohglobal warming is a bunch of liberal bull ****. i'm like whaaaaaaaaaa?
i cant believe the conservative's new thign is denying global warming. what do you think?

im referring to american conservatives

Answer 1

Two reasons:

1. Because American conservatives continue to think that "freedom" means "consumption." Or to put it another way, that "freedom" means "lifestyle." Whenever you hear the phrase "our way of life" that's precisely what they mean. E.g. no matter how much we are reminded that Arab nations have us by the b*lls as long as we are dependent on them for oil, has their President or Congress done *ANYTHING* to reduce our dependence on oil? Everytime I see an American flag on a hummer or massive Ford Pickup, I just want to hurl!

2. Creationism. This is fundamentalism taken to its extreme of anti-science irrationalism ... the ability to deny outright that scientists know anything *ABOUT SCIENCE*.

I'll give you an example of the latter ... a schoolbook on environmental science was amended by the publisher in order to get adoption by the Texas school board authority. One piece of text changed, a reference to glaciers forming the Great Lakes "millions of years ago" to "in the distant past". Why? Because of complaints from religious conservatives about a perceived inconsistency with the Biblical timelines.

How can we have an honest discussion of long-term environmental change when creationists deny that there is any such thing as long-term time (anything older thatn 6,000 years)?

My point? That creationism teaches religious conservatives from *early* childhood, to distrust scientists ON MATTERS OF SCIENCE. So the stage is set to simply deny what the scientific community is saying about global warming.

Answer 2

Politically I'm an independant, and this is what I believe about global warming. The evidence that the planet is warming is undeniable. Glaciers are melting, so only a fool would deny that. The question is, does human activity contribute to global warming? We are burning nearly a hundred million barrels of oil in the atmosphere every day, and I cannot imagine that has no effect. However, I think it may be a small or moderate effect.

Anyway, I agree with John McCain on this. He says that if we use alternative sources of energy, we reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other pollutants, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and leave the planet cleaner for our children and grandchildren. Now I don't care if you are liberal or conservative, how can you not agree with Senator McCain on that?

Answer 3

1) The science of climate has so many variables that it's not really possible to predict accurately the result of having extra CO2 in the atmosphere. All we really know is that there will be changes, and that this is very likely to cause hardship to a vast number of people.
2) The Right and Left like to have opposing views, the left tries to get a political advantage by jumping on the climate change bandwagon. Well, they're all politicians so there's going to be bull, even if their facts are essentially right it's indistinguishable from bull. Climate lends itself to simplistic rhetoric. Then the right picks away at any flaws in what the other guys say, that's politics, it's all about gaining an advantage over the other guy.
3) Some US conservatives have remarked that rising water levels won't hurt them, and that more CO2 will equal greater crop yields.
4) Interestingly, isn't California doing it's bit for climate change under conservative leadership?

Answer 4

It's an unfortunate knee-jerk reaction. Liberals have the erroneous idea that conservatives are all cigar-smoking CEO's, conservatives have the erroneous idea that liberals are all Birkenstock-wearing treehuggers. Historically conservationalist activities are mostly the domain of liberals, whom conservatives perceive as hurting Americans' wellbeing in the name of spotted newts or skunk cabbages. Because the animosity between conservatives and liberals is so great, conservatives tend to have a knee-jerk reaction against anything they perceive as emerging from a liberal agenda. The result is the denial sometimes of *any* global warming, other times of global warming caused by human activity. Liberals tend to do the same type of thing from the opposite viewpoint. I think both groups contain a lot of nuts.

Answer 5

They are probably denying the global warming human factors. Global Warming happens naturally, and only a very small acceleration (if any) has been caused by humans.

Thanks for the update

I have little knowledge of American Conservatives, so I shall not comment further

Answer 6

Generally speaking a conservative could be construed as someone who wants to conserve whatever material things they have accumulated. Accumulating material things usually involves hard work, even if it is a criminal act. Anyway, it isn't that they are denying the science of global warming, they are simply trying to accumulate whatever they think they will need, to get through whatever global warming brings. In short, conservatives are concerned about the future. Their future, not everyone else's future. Sort of like "every man for himself" type thinking. Just like it will be when the next ice age hits and only the strong will survive, only they think they'll be able to buy their survival. If they accumulate enough stuff.

Answer 7

Because conservative politicians are backed by big business. And the biggest businesses are energy. Energy pollutes and causes global warming. If conservatives acknowledge global warming, that would mean that it's undisputed and we would have to dump lots of money into clean energy, the oil companies would lose out, and the conservative politicians would lose all that huge cash flow. It's all about money.

Answer 8

because it is hard to say if it actually is caused by homo sapiens only. we had an iceage and periods of global warming way before human beings existed on this planet!
about politics: there is a lobby for global warming and there is one against global warming. -thats politics.different lobbies, different opinions; thats democracy.....ask some geologists and you will learn that we actually know nothing for sure! this issue is too complex to simply but it on human beings as the 'only' influence.. yet we have responsibility! to take care of the planet we live on and therefore protect the environment and make better choices in our resource spendings...we should rather spend money on alternative energies than creating the next WMD's..
there are as many 'opinions' as there are people..
some people are upset to loose money, others are trying to make some... I personally do NOT want to live in a society without technology but we can make better choices..the answer: as always lays somewhere in the middle...but politicians loose their jobs admitting that...

Answer 9

maximum Conservatives do not deny climate replace. We do comprehend that the Earth is ever changing and dealing with yet another heat up in simple terms like it has achieved interior the previous. some thing that the IPCC brushes off. What maximum Conservatives do not choose is to break our financial gadget like the AGW crowd needs us to do in accordance with a organic heat up. You do comprehend that the liberals have faith this because of the fact it provides extra administration over all the human beings of the international this is what they have been pushing for some years. climate replace is a lot extra approximately politics then it extremely is approximately extremely technological know-how. Why else do supporters are fantastic with giving India and China a unfastened bypass yet opt to punish the progressed international for attempting to shrink their eco-friendly domicile gas emissions because of the fact that they don't look to be changing quickly sufficient.

Answer 10

Denial is the best way of continuing one's life style and not changing. By disputing the science of global warming, they can deny to act.