The 'Greatest Hoax' Strikes Florida

[BeckyDem]

Denying climate change doesn’t stop its devastating effects.

As Hurricane Michael rips through homes and communities, we send our sympathies to all those in its path, but let’s also review what some leading Florida residents have said about climate change.

“One of the most preposterous hoaxes in the history of the planet,” scoffed Rush Limbaugh of Palm Beach. Gov. Rick Scott’s administration went so far as to bar some agencies from even using the term “climate change,” according to the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (Scott denied this).

Myopic Floridians have plenty of company. President Trump dismissed climate change as a hoax “created by and for the Chinese.” Senator James Inhofe, a Republican of Oklahoma, “disproved” climate change by taking a snowball onto the Senate floor and noting that it was chilly outside; using similarly rigorous scientific methods, he wrote a book about climate change called “The Greatest Hoax.”

Alas, denying climate change doesn’t actually prevent it. North Carolina passed a law in 2012 prohibiting the use of climate science in certain state planning, yet that didn’t intimidate Hurricane Florence last month. And banning the words “climate change” isn’t helping Florida now.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/opinion/climate-change-hurricane-michael.html

[RKP5637]

1. The "Stupid Factor" in this country is incredible ... what is even more incredible is these asses

get voted into office.

[BeckyDem]

2. Koch money, among others.

I am still processing the new climate change report, we don't have time for error and poor reactions to it.

I was worried before like everyone, but now I am afraid. We need so much co-operation and I don't know if we'll be able to do it right.

I'm not trying to be a fearmonger, but it makes me nervous because we are dealing with dumb people and greedy people. That is a toxic cocktail for the planet.

[rurallib]

20. Stupidity is currently still an individual choice

If Republicans have their way, it will soon be mandatory.

It is amazing how stupidity has been enshrined as a virtue in this country.

[sarcasmo]

31. Idiocracy.

[raccoon]

3. Maybe if everybody clapped? Clap if you don't believe in climate change

Maybe if everybody clapped? Clap if you don’t believe in climate change? Maybe that would make it go away.



The level of stupid in this country is strong.

[sofa king]

4. Nature don't give a damn what you believe.

[smirkymonkey]

18. Exactly! They will find that out soon enough.

It will only continue to get worse over the years. Especially if the republicans stay in power.

[YessirAtsaFact]

27. Mother Nature bats last

I saw that on a bumper sticker a while back.

It doesn’t matter if we believe it or not, it’s going to happen unless we take action to stop it

[KY_EnviroGuy]

5. Good parallel article here with Gulf heat map....

Victims of Hurricane Michael voted for climate deniers
Elections have consequences. Denying science has consequences. And we are reaping what we sow.
John Abraham
Thu 11 Oct 2018

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/oct/11/victims-of-hurricane-michael-voted-for-climate-deniers

(snip)

We know that climate change is making these storms stronger. The storms feed off of warm ocean waters, and those waters are much warmer now because of climate change. But basically, Michael strengthened because it passed over really warm waters. Waters that were hotter because of human-caused warming.
------
It is a wonder that a state like Florida, which will get pummeled by Michael, could vote for someone that denies climate change. Think of how backwards the situation is – the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has reportedly been banned from using the terms “climate change” and “global warming”. This policy reportedly went into effect when Florida elected a science denier, Rick Scott, to governor.

Rick Scott has been condemned by people in Florida for his backward stance. It is climate denial like his that has contributed to the suffering of residents in the state. It’s not that my colleagues haven’t tried to help Governor Scott understand how his policies hurt his state. A few years ago, scientists met with him and urged him to take climate change seriously. He remained silent.

It isn’t that the local media hasn’t tried. Major newspapers have called upon Rick Scott to take action on climate change. But to little avail. Maybe it’s because Rick Scott invests in companies that oppose climate change regulations?

.......... .........

Thanks for the OP, BeckyDem.......

[malaise]

8. Great post

The gawd fearing ReTHUGs should fear Don the Con and his goons but sadly many are part of the goon squad.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

13. With the pan handle being what it is (blood red)...

I hope some very objective journalists analyze the attitudes of the people there to see what changes well after the dust has settled. I suspect many will be having second thoughts about climate change, particularly among the youth and younger adults.

There something about having your home, school or business ripped to shreds.......

[malaise]

14. We can hope

Bangs head

[RKP5637]

9. Scott, is a criminal that really should be in jail for Medicare fraud. Yet, they will likely vote

him in as a senator.

[BeckyDem]

11. +1

[janterry]

17. The drug testing scam would have netted him millions

(as I'm sure you know, but perhaps others may have forgotten )

If he had succeeded in drug testing all the welfare recipients - his company (the one he founded) would have reaped the rewards.

Of course, his only investment now......is millions in stocks - that he tried to say wouldn't benefit him - because they were transferred to his wife's account.

[mitch96]

33. Likely vote him in

bite your tongue....
m

[BeckyDem]

10. Back at ya EnviroGuy!

You reminded me of a clip from years ago, I believe it went viral and centered around this very thing you posted:

the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has reportedly been banned from using the terms “climate change” and “global warming”. This policy reportedly went into effect when Florida elected a science denier, Rick Scott, to governor.


It was a video of the state congress and the Dems, two guys if I recall accurately, laughing so hard because the con was speaking and trying to avoid using the term climate change. lol It exemplified corruption in a way I will never forget.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

15. Similar thing happened in North Carolina.

Just ban using the words....there, that fixed it...... ....

[BeckyDem]

16. One would hope that voters would find such blatant censorship

suspicious. After all they're always crowing about freedom.

[dalton99a]

35. +1

[malaise]

6. Hopefully they'll now see that the real hoax is

Don the Con

[rickford66]

7. You'd think Trump could get China to stop the hoax.

Although the hoax must be beneficial to someone. Follow the money.

[BeckyDem]

12. The money and their denial. Their money won't save them.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

19. Florida needs a preacher

Poor Florida doesn't have anyone to pray up a wall against Michael. That's all it takes. Remember Robertson totally blocked Hurricane Florence. No trouble; no damage.

Florida obviously does not send enough money to tv preachers. It costs a lot of money to pray away climate change.

[wiggs]

21. This issue alone should have been enough in 2000, and even more so now. nt

[gratuitous]

22. I worked on tobacco litigation

If you think climate change deniers know their audience (and they do), it's because of the pioneering work done by the lead industry and the tobacco industry. For a startling story on lead, the Nation had this in 2000:

https://www.thenation.com/article/secret-history-lead/

Tobacco companies also knew their audience. They knew smokers were addicted to nicotine, and they knew how to manipulate public opinion to keep those addicts using their deadly product. The right mixture of flattery ("Don't let those health nags tell YOU how to live your life; smoke if you want to" leaving the impression that smoking was a choice, rather than addiction), and doubt ("the link between smoking and lung cancer isn't conclusive" ) was sufficient to keep smokers smoking. Even when contrary evidence arose, smokers were encouraged to ignore it by tobacco companies and their innocuous-sounding front groups.

Big Tobacco also studied to a fare-thee-well just how much nicotine each cigarette needed to provide to keep a profitably sufficient number of smokers smoking, and just what psychological buttons to push to manipulate smokers' attitudes. Delving into the subject is by turns nauseating, fascinating, and staring in slack-jawed wonder tinged with admiration at the ruthlessness of it all.

The climate change deniers have had a terrific template to follow, and follow it they have. Their work is going to be more and more difficult going forward as more and more people are directly affected by climate change, but they've been banking big money for years to keep government officials bought off and to fund ersatz research to keep the controversy alive, justifying inaction.

[gay texan]

24. And Morton Downey's

"Smokers Rights" crusade. Remember that well back in the day...

[Canoe52]

25. +1000

[Metro135]

32. The illogic is similar in both cases

How can you seriously think that sucking in smoke from cigarette after cigarette -- that contain carbon monoxide among other things -- is not going to have an effect on your lungs and overall health?

How can you think that pouring billions of tons of pollutants into the atmosphere -- methane, carbon monoxide, etc. -- decade after decade, for close to 150 years, will not affect weather patterns and other aspects of the ecosystem?

But it's supposedly a "fact" that hurricanes are sent by God to punish the U.S. for allowing gay marriage.

My head hurts.

[BeckyDem]

34. Thank you so much. Incredible.

[FakeNoose]

36. Great, thanks! I'm bookmarking this link

Lead poisoning has been a known toxin for centuries. The ancient Roman culture probably died out because of lead poisoning which weakened and sickened them to the point of mental incapacity. The lacquer the Romans used on all their pottery dishes was full of lead, which meant they ingested lead with every meal.

I will read this article in The Nation with great interest.

[Moostache]

23. I've been going off about this for a decade...

The problem is religion and the undue respect it garners in our society still.

The same people who are telling you that climate change is a myth and a hoax are aligned with or are physically the same as the ones telling you that evolution is "just a theory" and that the Earth is really only 6,000 years old.

They deny facts, they deny science, they put forth the most asinine beliefs as "world views" and "alternative facts".

Bottom line, if someone tells you they comune with Elvis or JFK, they are immediately consider a lunatic and a kook, but switch it up to claim you talk to Jesus and you're a pillar of the community and granted deference on matters of politics, science and morality.

These people are insane, they say insane things and they should be handled the same way...utterly ignored and granted nothing but ridicule and scorn for such ludicrous positions. They really should be made to feel ashamed of saying stupid things - up to and including the Pope and blaming "the devil" for his organization's hideously perverted and sexually repressed ongoing rape of children.

I have had enough religion for two millennia. We either shake off the disease or we will watch it kill us all in the end. That should be the easiest choice ever...

[Pepsidog]

26. Block FEMA funds for states that deny climate science.

[Roadside Attraction]

28. Oh, bullshit!!!

I don't believe a hurricane hit Florida or SC and NC for that matter. It's all fake news generated by a Democratic mob and paid for by George Soros, based on instructions from Saul Alinsky. So, there you have it.

[Achilleaze]

29. republican lies are dangerous for America

republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America
republican lies are dangerous for America

[TwistOneUp]

30. You can deny and ignore Reality...

But be assured that Reality is neither denying nor ignoring you.