The Political Climate: an ongoing commentary on the NH Primary and Climate Change

I got an email this morning from a member of the Carbon Coalition speakers’ bureau.  He recently spoke at two venues in the Granite State and this was his review of the events:

“On the one hand, I’m happy to be preaching to the choir, but on the other, I find myself wanting to be confronted by more climate change deniers. There were probably 25 people on Saturday morning in Keene and closer to 30 in Ossipee; most of them listened attentively and had interesting questions. However, the deniers seem to be staying mum when it comes to challenging the science. Maybe more Americans are becoming concerned about this issue than I’d thought, or maybe the non-believers stay home.”

Maybe the handful of ”non-believers” are staying home–a recent survey shows 2% of NH Democratic and 14% of NH Republican voters think global warming “won’t happen”–but more likely, the choir is growing.  According to this poll, more Americans are becoming concerned with global warming.  Mark Mellman, president of the Mellman Group (who conducted the poll), notes “it is worth recognizing that Republican voters are far ahead of their elected officials, who are in danger of losing support as a result of embracing a Luddite position on global warming.”  It’s been said that green is the new black and from the red carpet of Hollywood to the cover of Sports Illustrated, this is becoming increasingly true.  But it’s not about a trend or believing or not–this isn’t Santa Claus, it’s science–it’s about listening, learning, and catching up on the facts (which our speaker points out is not happening).  The naysayers and “deniers” are, as Mellman so perfectly put it, “embracing a Luddite position,” and despite majority rule federal policy has yet to catch up. 

The minority is still creating quite the ruckus.  Yesterday Sen. James Inhofe, an outspoken global warming skeptic, announced that Live Earth, an international series of concerts aimed at raising global warming awareness, should not be held on Capitol Hill.  He argued that “there has never been a partisan political event at the Capitol, and this is a partisan political event.”  Sen. Olympia Snowe countered Inhofe by saying moving the concert location “would certainly provide an unfortunate message on behalf of the U.S., that somehow we’re languishing in our desire to combat the problem.”  Although Snowe makes a good point, we already are languishing in our efforts to combat global warming and a concert to raise awareness isn’t likely going to be the solution.