Pirate's Cove

The science is totally settled, y’all!

EDITORIAL: Stop debating climate change

Climate change deniers have been newly empowered by the presence of one of their own in the White House. But that doesn’t make their paranoid theories about grand conspiracies and scientific hoaxes any less wrong.

What it does do, however, is give them far more power to impose their minority will on the masses — and endanger our environment and our future in the process. Republicans, meanwhile, seem far too willing to go along for the ride, regardless of the consequences.

The GOP needs more representatives like New Jersey Rep. Frank LoBiondo, who isn’t willing to play that game anymore. Earlier this week he introduced a resolution warning that pointless climate-change debates are only distracting from meaningful policy considerations.

“It is far past time we moved beyond the debate from if our climate is changing — it is — to identifying and promoting solutions to mitigate potentially catastrophic effects,” the resolution read in part.

He’s exactly right, even if not enough if his colleagues will listen.

So, stop debating, because no one ever debates science.

But if there’s room for debate on how best to balance all of the economic and environmental interests related to climate change, President Trump doesn’t bother with such nuance. He blames climate change hysteria on Democrats, the Chinese, the media, and whatever other enemies he may feel like targeting at a given moment. Denial in his mind helps open the door to gutting the Environmental Protection Agency, easing pollution restrictions, minimizing renewable energy initiatives and taking countless other steps designed to benefit business at the expense of our air, our water and our wildlife.

First, cutting ‘climate change’ programs has nothing do to with clean air, land, and water, and wildlife couldn’t care less about a few more parts per million of CO2.

Second, if the science is so settled, then why do all these programs still need to be funded?