The science is clear that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and the burning of fossil fuels the main contributor to global climate change. This has been accepted by the professional scientific community for some time. Reidy and Swartz show that knowledge of carbon dioxide being greenhouse gas has existed for even longer. Hall reports that “Inside Climate News” claims that Exxon knew about climate change in the summer of 1977.
I’m genuinely confused by the question, “If scientists have known about the climate-related dangers for a long time, why hasn’t something been done about it politically?” There has been an enormous, public, and contentious political response to climate change. Why would “climate contrarians” even bother to respond if something wasn’t happening politically? Here are a few examples:
https://www.epa.gov/climate-research
https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview
https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-energy-policy-act
https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-energy-independence-and-security-act
https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-bill/1/text
In fairness to the ”climate contrarians,” they are usually responding to journalists, pundits, or politicians, not scientists. Frequently those pundits, journalists, and politicians report inaccurate and misleading information. One example of this is the “12 years to save the planet” claim made by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. (https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/24/politics/fact-check-trump-aoc-climate/index.html) This claim is not supported by any IPCC findings and yet it gets spread by people of power and authority. As people trying to address climate change, we should look at serious, practical, solutions that are likely to be adopted. We should not focus on proving that “climate contrarians” are wrong then passing laws to force them into compliance.
