Four Ways Climate Reality Looms Over the GOP Convention

by: TheGreenMiles

Tue Aug 28, 2012 at 14:30:00 PM EDT

First, let's be clear: It's Big Oil-funded GOP leadership that's the problem, not rank-and-file Republicans. While virtually every Republican member of Congress and national party leader rejects climate science, 43% of rank-and-file Republicans see "solid evidence of global warming" according to the Pew Research Center.

Dig a little deeper and those numbers should be even more eye-catching for GOP leadership.  

But Mitt Romney's website doesn't even mention climate change. While Romney himself once advocated for clean energy & carbon pollution cuts, he now rejects climate science. Romney's energy plan unveiled last week contains mostly giveaways to the oil industry and polls show it hasn't helped him with voters - no surprise considering Big Oil remains the most hated industry in America by a wide margin.

At a time when global warming & extreme weather are dominating the headlines, Republican Party leadership is increasingly step with the American mainstream:

1. Isaac bears down on the Gulf Coast. The Republican Party was forced to cancel the convention's first day in Tampa as Isaac sent tropical storm warnings up along the Gulf Coast. Isaac is now forecast to make landfall as a hurricane near New Orleans late Tuesday. Global warming is making storms more intense by adding the fuel of warmer air & water to their fire, while rising sea levels raise the launching pad for storm surges. 
2. Bracing for a storm surge at the pump. The threat of Isaac is already shutting down oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to raise gas prices. It's one of many ways that global warming threatens America's energy infrastructure, and a problem that won't be solved by relying more on offshore oil drilling.
3. Arctic Sea ice melt scorches previous record. This summer's Arctic Sea ice has already receded past the previous record - and there are still weeks of melting time to go. That's bad news for the polar bears and other wildlife who depend on sea ice for survival. There's also increasing evidence that a warming Arctic means more weird weather here in America.
4. America's sweltering summer. This year has been the hottest on record in the United States, with July 2012 going into the record books as America's hottest month ever. Globally, 2012 has been the 10th-hottest on record, nearly 1 degree F above the 20th-century average. That it's only 10th speaks to how much & how quickly our climate is changing - up until 1998, 2012 would've been the hottest year on record.

Cross-posted from TheGreenMiles.com