With the climate change discussion in Congress heating up, Republicans and Democrats struggle in the rigorous debate between scientific evidence and political agenda. Democrats, despite scientific evidence, have still struggled to pass substantial legislation that would address the issue at hand. Regulations and policies to prevent and reverse the earth’s path toward extinction have been cut back and the Liberal’s poster child, the EPA, seems to purposefully be doing the exact opposite of their agenda. While the EPA means well, and they obviously did not intend to spill the chemical waste into the Animas River, the spill gives climate change deniers another topic to ramble on about during these debates.
Global Warming is not an issue we should still be debating in Washington; the scientific community has spoken and the majority of Americans believe them. Democrats must find a way to get the public to speak out on the key issues, because when they do, they tend to lean left. On almost every issue Democrats have a clear majority of people behind their stance, With Gay marriage, 63% agree with the Dems, 67% support research obtained from human embryos,and 63% of Americans agree with taking action on Climate Change(gallup.com). These numbers would suggest that Americans would vote for Congressmen to represent a more liberal stance on such issues, but in recent elections, it has been quite the opposite, many Democratic incumbents were voted out of office for climate change disbelievers. While the Democrats are hardly the main reason that this climate change discussion has gotten out of hand, they certainly could do a little better job implementing policies and electing congressmen that support their cause.
The strong values of conservatism have a lot to bring to this country, not included in these great ideas, is outright denying science and using the absurd excuse that “I’m not a scientist” as some sort of justification for having little to no common sense. Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell, Speaker of the House John Boehner, and Presidential candidate Marco Rubio have all clarified in one way or another that they are not scientists as an excuse for denying climate change. To be clear, not every Republican is so ignorant when it comes to climate change, Presidential Candidates Lindsey Graham and John Kasich have called out their own party for denying the science.The debate should no longer be whether or not climate change is real, but what exactly we need to do to deal with the startling trends. Republicans will not win this debate by outright denying the science like they have in the past, they, however, can win the debate by finding a way to uphold their strong conservative principles while still coming up with a solution to the climate change issues.
Despite moderate conservatives’ efforts to corral the sporadic tendencies of their party, the trend of Republicans is to continue denying the science. A change of mind does not seem realistic at this point, whether it is well respected scientists or religious figureheads like Pope Francis stating that we need to act on climate change, the leaders of the Republican Party always find a way to fire back. When the Pope stood up and decided to take a progressive stance on climate change, Republicans pushed his statements aside, ensuring the electorate that “he’s not a scientist, let him stick to the moral issues.” Among the many discrepancies in that argument is the fact that it is a moral issue. Having the honesty and integrity to protect our planet for future generations is almost entirely a moral issue, so let’s stop pretending that it’s okay to pick and choose what the Pope can speak out on simply because it fits your political agenda. To make their argument even worse, the Pope has a masters degree in Chemistry. So he is, in fact, a scientist, and has not only the right, but the obligation to speak out on such an issue. To be fair, Marco Rubio is not the head of a university, so why would he know whether or not the Pope has a degree in Chemistry. The point is, not being a scientist is not a good enough excuse for denying scientific evidence, just like not being the head of a university is not an excuse to deny Pope Francis’s degree in Chemistry
The science is too clear, it is too startling, too urgent, for Democrats and Republicans to still be debating if it is even an issue. Acting on climate change is the closest thing the global population has to a political consensus, but the United States continues to argue if action needs to be taken. The debates have gone on long enough, and it is time for Democrats and Republicans to work together and join the global community that is ready to take action on climate change.