Saturday, September 24, 2016

375 Top Scientists Warn of 'Real, Serious, Immediate' Climate Threat

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio listens to a question during a town hall meeting in Waterloo, Iowa, December 29, 2015. 95% of economics experts disagree with Rubio’s claims that cutting carbon pollution will hurt the economy. (Photograph Credit: Scott Morgan/Reuters) Click to Enlarge.
Tuesday, 375 of the world’s top scientists, including 30 Nobel Prize winners, published an open letter regarding climate change.  In the letter, the scientists report that the evidence is clear: humans are causing climate change.  We are now observing climate change and its affect across the globe.  The seas are rising, the oceans are warming, the lower atmosphere is warming, the land is warming, ice is melting, rainfall patterns are changing and the ocean is becoming more acidic.

These facts are incontrovertible.  No reputable scientist disputes them.  It is the truth.

Despite these facts, the letter reports that the US presidential campaign has seen claims that the earth isn’t warming, or it is only a natural warming, or that climate change is a hoax.  These claims are false.  The claims are made by politicians or real estate developers with no scientific experience.  These people who deny the reality of climate change are not scientists. 

These claims aren’t new.  We see them every election cycle.  In fact, for the Republican Party, they are a virtual litmus test for electability.  It is terribly sad that the party of Lincoln (the president who initiated the National Academy of Sciences) has been rebuked by the National Academy today.  It is sad that the party of Teddy Roosevelt, who created the National Park System, is acting in a way antithetical to his legacy.  It is also sad that the party of Nixon, who created the Environmental Protection Agency, now is trying to eliminate that very organization.

What is perhaps most sad is that the party of “fiscal conservatism” is leading us on a path that will result in higher economic and social costs for all of us.

Read more at 375 Top Scientists Warn of 'Real, Serious, Immediate' Climate Threat

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