The United States remains the only developed democracy where The Climate Change Debate is primarily over whether climate change is real. Most places, the debate is over what to do about it. But not in the World’s Greatest Democracy, where one of the two major political parties our system allows simply denies—using various, ever-shifting, often-contradictory lines of rhetoric—that it’s real and man-made and we must do something to combat it. …
For decades, the mainstream Beltway media has been engaged in an obsessive quest to give Both Sides of every debate equal time and seriousness, regardless of whether there is any evidence to support them. This is not out of a desire to inform viewers of the empirical truth as we know it, but to avoid allegations of bias from the right-wing—allegations that partisans will always lob at outlets that report things they find inconvenient. …
Disagreements on whether reality is real are treated as not just legitimate, but as inevitable features of political life. Sure, Republicans deny the asteroid is headed towards Earth. But in these divisive times… Never is it considered that framing the discussion in this way may actually be a major force in allowing this dynamic to continue. CONT.
Jack Holmes, Esquire