As the drought in Nebraska and Kansas is worsening and continues unabated throughout much of the nation, Mitt Romney has chosen Paul Ryan, a virulent climate change denialist and acolyte of the Koch brothers, to be his running mate. If team Romney is elected, we are guaranteed of another four years of inaction on the climate crisis, promiscuous deregulation of the oil and financial industries, and the evisceration of federal regulatory agencies like the EPA. Ryan has accused climate scientists "of a perversion of the scientific method" and manipulating data. Ryan has written that winter snow invalidates concerns about global warming. Ryan voted to block EPA action to limit the emissions of carbon dioxide, the principle gas involved in human caused greenhouse forcing. In 2011. he voted to prevent the USDA from preparing for large scale droughts predicted by all climate modelling. This vote is especially troubling given the unprecedented drought and record breaking heat affecting much of the US including Ryan's home state of Wisconsin. Ryan also voted in 2011, to expedite the construction of the Keysone XL tar sands pipeline a project which James Hansen has referred to as "game over" for any hope of limiting the near term catastrophic impacts of rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Ryan's Budget committee ( he is the chairman) has voted to retain tax breaks for the oil industry, while slashing funding for clean energy research and development.
Ryan wrote in a 2009 op-ed piece that "environmental issues have fallen victim to the hyper-politicization of science." With Ryan's BA in political science he no doubt is an expert in the politicization of many issues including his seminal efforts to trivialize the immediacy of the climate crisis. I have always been fascinated by the timidity of our media in demanding answers to the outrageous distortions and lies spewed by politicians and public figures. In Ryan's case, he should be expected to answer a barrage of questions pertaining to his policy statements and votes related to greenhouse warming. Does he understand the science? Can he explain why the paleo-climate data, so compelling to those doing the science, are not at all persuasive to him? Does Ryan know the difference between a forcing and a feedback? Does he even have a vague notion of how greenhouse gases trap infrared radiation (heat) and cause atmospheric warming? These questions comprise a fundamental body of knowledge that every politician, policymaker, and voter must understand. I am certain that Ryan like most Americans would be unable to answer any of these questions coherently.
So here is the stark reality: if Ryan and Romney are elected they will implement an energy policy based on the continued and accelerated use of fossil fuels. Ryan will continue to bask in the smarmy certitude that he is a real deal wonk divinely annointed with papal infallibility.As such he will implement policies that benefit commerce and wealth and rigidly oppose legislation that could ameliorate the many long-standing problems oligarchs like Ryan have managed to ignore or marginalize.
Ryan has been called the " intellectual leader of the conservative movement" illustrating just how cognitively impoverished our political discourse has become. Ryan is just another arrogant blowhard narcissist who believes he can righteously form opinions without bothering to become acquainted with the facts. Ryan's staggering lack of knowledge of basic science coupled with his powerful position in Congress, and now a possible vice-president, can only fill rational people with with despair and sadness for the future of all children and life.
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