On August 5th, just before the first GOP debate, California Governor Jerry Brown issued an open letter provoking the Presidential contenders about climate change. He posed the following to all seventeen candidates, although he was specifically addressing Donald Trump:
Climate change is often discussed in the abstract. But these impacts - in California and the rest of the nation - are real. Worldwide, 2014 was the warmest year on record and 2005 to 2014 was the warmest decade on record. The first six months of 2015 have been even hotter. Longer fire seasons, extreme weather and severe droughts aren't on the horizon, they're all here - and here to stay. This is the new normal. The climate is changing.
Strangely, Brown deduces from the devastating realities of forest fires and unusually warm weather that climate change is the culprit. No appeal to real evidence or statistical analysis. Pure abstraction.
Given the challenge and the stakes, my question for you is simple: What are you going to do about it? What is your plan to deal with the threat of climate change?
The climate has always been changing. Does Governor Brown expect the Republican candidates to tell the sun to stop shining or the moon to stay in place, like some modern-day Joshua?
Continuing to question the science and hurl insults at "global warming hoaxsters" and "apostles of this pseudo-religion" won't prevent severe damage to our health and economic well-being. Americans, their children and generations to come deserve - and demand - better.
Yes, but neither will blaming the natural forces of global weather patterns exonerate the Sacramento political class which has placed the well-being of plants head of people, and flora and fauna ahead of farmers and their families.
From the lab to the boardroom and even to the pulpit, global leaders aren't waiting around. They understand there's no time for delay or denial.
By "pulpit," Brown was appealing to a “higher authority”: Pope Francis, a modernizing pontiff whose views clash with economic facts and moral realities. He has lost a great deal of his own moral persuasion due to his frequent and often wrong forays into discussions on heated issues (no pun intended).
The Sacramento Bee also reported:
Scolding the current field of Republican presidential candidates, Brown listed a handful of Republican politicians who have supported policies to address climate change, including former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But despite Brown’s efforts to troll the Republican bench, two of the strongest candidates punched back against Brown’s climate change baiting. The Sacramento Bee buzzed (pun intended):
Asked about Brown’s prodding, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said at a gathering of Republican activists that the climate has been changing forever and that “global warming alarmists” are perhaps “just interested politically in more power over the economy and our lives.”
Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co. who ran against U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer in 2010, said it “may well be true” that climate change has worsened effects of the drought. Like many Republicans, however, she blamed environmentalists and their Democratic allies for blocking the construction of dams in the state.
So whether or not one buys into the notion of man-made climate change, at least two of the Republican presidential candidates were savvy enough to put the blame back on the alarmists themselves.
