There are certain issues in this past election I refuse to get over. I am not one of those who thinks focusing on the positive is the remedy to a bad situation. Ignoring things that are truly wrong is being irresponsible.
The climate change deniers are a group now championed by our next president that must be opposed. I understand that accepting reality is inconvenient in the short run. By ignoring science you can promise that coal miners that they will get their jobs back. You can argue against government regulation in situations when industries find such regulations reduce profits and involve oversight. You can ignore subsidizing new industries when there is opposition from existing industries and when tax money might be involved.
You cannot trump science. You can ignore reality while it is convenient and few are presently impacted by long-term trends, but this self-serving approach only creates a more damaging future others will face.
My most recent political annoyance concerns the Department of Natural Resources in Wisconsin. They have changed their public statement on climate change. I have no illusions when it comes to such state agencies. I worked with Game and Fish in North Dakota for years and learned that such agencies while supposedly basing practice on scientific principles were very responsive to politicians. If political pressure says the science of climate change is not approved, you find a way to hedge or pander and back away from your principles. Now the official position of the Wisconsin DNR is that climate change is a controversial scientific position. I guess they did not bother to ask the scientists.
Just be sure I checked to see what the University of Wisconsin might have to say about climate change. I was heartened to learn that UW is home to the Nelson Institute – Center for Climactic Research. The Center contends”
Out partnership with the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI) offers a model example of how university researchers can engage with decision-makers in the public and private sectors.
I wonder if the governor and state legislature know that this is going on.
BTW – reread my title. Get it?