In today’s On the News segment: Sixty percent of Americans are represented by someone in Congress who refuses to accept climate science; environmental activists in Nevada derailed a Bureau of Land Management auction last week; new research shows paternal lifestyle choices affect the health of offspring; and more.
See more news and opinion from Thom Hartmann at Truthout here.
TRANSCRIPT:
Thom Hartmann here — on the best of the rest of Science and Green News …
You need to know this. Sixty percent of Americans are represented by someone in Congress who refuses to accept climate science. That’s according new research from the Center of American Progress Action Fund, which found that more than 200 million people in our country are represented by a climate change denier in Congress. And considering that 76 percent of Americans believe in global climate change — including about 60 percent of Republicans — that means that most of us disagree with our lawmakers on the need to address our climate crisis. Yet thanks to the massive amount of fossil fuel money pouring into our elections, those climate deniers keep getting elected. In fact, according to this recent research, climate deniers have received more than $73 million from dirty energy companies, which is a huge increase over the $63 million that they had received as of the beginning of last year. And considering that we don’t even know about all the dark money pumped into our elections through super PACs, that number could be even higher. So despite the fact that the vast majority of Americans agree about the climate science and the need for climate action, the fossil fuel industry outspends voters and makes sure their buddies get elected to Congress. That is not how democracy should work and it’s not the way we go about making sure we can survive on this planet in the future. With so many climate deniers in Congress — all of whom are Republicans — it’s nearly impossible to fund climate research, invest in green energy…