Thirty years ago, many Republicans denied that there were such things as global warming and climate change. Twenty years ago, they accepted that climate change was real but humans weren’t responsible. Ten years ago, they accepted that humans had a role in climate change, but it wasn’t a significant one. Today, most Republicans accept that human-caused climate change is occurring, but it won’t be nearly as bad as scientists predict.

Debris from a home that partially fell into the Mendenhall River sits on its banks in Juneau, Alaska, on Aug. 6. The melting Mendenhall Glacier released a flash flood Aug. 5 on the river, which cuts through a densely populated part of the capital city, destroying at least two homes and displacing dozens of people. Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Empire via AP

A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll shows that 56% of Americans say that climate change is a major threat. Sadly, 70% of Republicans say it is a minor threat, or none it all. Why are they such slow learners?

According to The New York Times, the conservative Heritage Foundation has announced a strategy called Project 2025, a “battle plan for the first 180 days of a future Republican presidency.” It “calls for shredding regulations to curb greenhouse gas pollution from cars, oil and gas wells and power plants, dismantling almost every clean energy program in the federal government and boosting the production of fossil fuels – the burning of which is the chief cause of planetary warming.”

This is a tragic commentary on the state of the Republican Party, a party that is blind to the fate of our planet should we not quickly transition to renewable energy. Who do you trust on climate policy? Donald Trump and the fossil fuel companies, or the overwhelming consensus of scientists around the world?

Joe Hardy
Wells