Republican Presidential hopeful embarrasses himself on climate change

(Today’s guest blogger is Phil Plait who writes Slate’s Bad Astronomy blog. Phil is an astronomer, public speaker, science evangelizer, and author of Death From the Skies! Thanks Phil – I could have said it better.)

In case you haven’t heard, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is not a fan of reality.

The reality of science, that is. He has a history of presenting global warming–denying talking points and used some of his political power just this past week to pressure NASA into downplaying its role in measuring the effects of global warming on the planet.

Earlier this week, Cruz went on Late Night With Seth Meyers, and they discussed the issue. What Cruz said, in its entirety, is what comes out of the south end of a north-facing bull.

Here’s the transcript:

“I just came back from New Hampshire where there’s snow and ice everywhere. And my view actually is simple: Debates on this should follow science, and should follow data. And many of the alarmists on global warming, they got a problem cuz the science just doesn’t back them up. And in particular, satellite data demonstrates that the last 17 years there’s been zero warming. None whatsoever. It’s why—you remember how it used to be called global warming and then magically the theory changed to climate change? The reason is it wasn’t warming, but the computer models still say it is, except the satellites show it’s not.”

There’s so much wrong in what he said that it’s almost cartoonish. It’s a tour de force of wrongness.

Let’s go point by point.

First: It’s cold in New Hampshire! Yes, because global warming doesn’t mean the Earth is always hot. It still gets cold because we have seasons; the Earth’s axis is still tilted. This is a standard denier talking point meant to distract from the real issue. Cruz starting off with this line is a sure-fire way of knowing that he’s got his head firmly planted in the sand. As Stephen Colbert wrote, brilliantly mocking this kind of ridiculosity, “Global warming isn’t real because I was cold today! Also great news: World hunger is over because I just ate.”

Second: Cruz is right in one sense; we should follow the science. But the real science, not the nonsense he’s saying. Real science doesn’t cherry-pick one result that appears (incorrectly) to back up an outrageous claim, but ignore the overwhelming amount of evidence that this claim is dead wrong.

Third: He says satellite data shows no warming. That is wrong, wrong, wrong. Even giving him the benefit of the doubt, his saying this shows at best a gross misunderstanding of the data. And there is a vast amount of data from other sources showing the Earth is warming up. As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported in February 2015, “nine of the past 12 months have been either warmest or second warmest on record for their respective months.” And 2014 was one of if not the hottest year on record.

But of all the bizarre nonsense Cruz said in that interview, what really got my teeth grinding was his comment about how it used to be called “global warming” but now we call it “climate change” because the evidence doesn’t support warming. That is at the level of weapons-grade irony. The idea to start calling it “climate change” came from a Republican strategist, in an effort to make it seem less threatening.

By saying that, Cruz has gone full Orwell: His own party made that change in phrase, but he’s accusing scientists of doing it. Ted Cruz is a flat-out science denier. He’s unworthy of a leadership position, especially one that deals with science. Yet he’s chairman of the Senate subcommittee overseeing NASA, and he wants to run for president.

If there’s anything that can counteract global warming, it’s the chill in the air I feel from having to write that last paragraph.

Religion is bad for the earth

I know that I’ve had a recent rant on a similar topic and I promise that, after today, I’ll give it a rest, but there’s one more dark alley I want to venture down before I put my musings on the health of the planet to bed.

I should disclose that I was raised in an evangelical home, went to an evangelical university and count evangelicals as some of my best friends. The data and assertions contained in this blog DO NOT apply to all evangelicals – there are a lot of very smart, very good people out there in Gospel Land, my immediate family at the top of the list. Having said that, the facts are what they are.

In recent decades, the world has tried, time after time, to deal with the issue of climate change and, arguably, the biggest opponent to action has been the United States. Diplomats and negotiators from other Western nations have chalked this up to political agenda and corporate interest. I think they’ve missed a very important point here.

Americans are the most evangelically Christian people on earth – there’s no even remotely comparable country in the west. In my view, the best comparisons are Muslim nations like Iran and Saudi Arabia. A 2012 Gallup poll shows that 46% of Americans are fully fledged creationists while another 30 odd percent believe in some sort of God lead evolution. Only 15% believe in evolution with no intervention by the Invisible Man. Most evangelicals simply don’t believe in science of any kind – it goes against their cornerstone  belief that God is in charge of everything. Then there are the studies that link education and IQ to membership in evangelical churches and belief in God. Multiple studies – two of the most prominent being a 2004 study by researchers at the University of Ulster and a 2013 joint study by Northeastern University and the University of Rochester (using data from 1928 to 2012), show that (1) people with high IQs are far less likely to believe in a god of any kind – even if they are brought up in evangelical homes, and (2) people with little education are twice as likely to join evangelical churches as university graduates are.

Then we have the basic belief of evangelicals that, one day soon (it’s always soon, no matter which century we’re talking about) God will magically whisk the believers away into the sky not long before he wreaks havoc on the earth, destroys it and creates the new heaven and earth, complete with streets paved with gold, great new bodies, unlimited great health, etc. For Muslims it’s not that different – Paradise, virgins and all that jazz. It’s a great payoff – far better than having equity in a startup:).

So here’s the picture – a movement, with a high percentage of people with less education and lower IQs than the general population, who believe that God is going to destroy the earth sometime soon, are largely driving the current US political agenda. If you don’t believe me, check out the biographies of the Republican caucus. They are the ones who decide if America believes in, cares about and wishes to take action on climate change. I think Crystal Palace has a better chance of winning the Premier League this season than the world’s climate leaders have of convincing the US of anything.

I haven’t talked about the fact that fundamentalist Muslim nations are just as likely to block climate change action but (1) they’re far less influential than the US and (2) if I write more than 700 words my readership drops by 40%:). In any event, they’re just as obstructionist and equally impossible to move.

The world’s in big trouble, we need action now and that action is being thwarted by deeply religious people whose beliefs prevent them from believing in climate change or, if they are well enough educated and smart enough to believe in it, from caring. In my book, that makes their religion Earth enemy number one. Maybe the rapture should happen tomorrow – then the rest of us can get on with it.