Sherwood Boehlert: Can the Party of Reagan Accept the Science of Climate Change?

Our newest contributing RP, Sherwood Boehlert, served in the U.S. Congress from 1983-2007.  A proud Republican, Boehlert was a staunch environmentalist and a passionate advocate for measures to battle climate change.  While that may seem incongruous today, Boehlert suggests that supporting science is very consistent with the legacy of President Reagan. 

Read Boehlert’s recent op-ed on this issue from The Washington Post:

Watching the raft of newly elected GOP lawmakers converge on Washington, I couldn’t help thinking about an issue I hope our party will better address. I call on my fellow Republicans to open their minds to rethinking what has largely become our party’s line: denying that climate change and global warming are occurring and that they are largely due to human activities.

National Journal reported last month that 19 of the 20 serious GOP Senate challengers declared that the science of climate change is either inconclusive or flat-out wrong. Many newly elected Republican House members take that position. It is a stance that defies the findings of our country’s National Academy of Sciences, national scientific academies from around the world and 97 percent of the world’s climate scientists.

Why do so many Republican senators and representatives think they are right and the world’s top scientific academies and scientists are wrong? I would like to be able to chalk it up to lack of information or misinformation.

Click here to read the full essay.