Howard Dean: ‘Republicans Don’t Believe in Science’
The Snowpocalypse has given skeptics a reason to dance on the frozen grave of climate change, from Sean Hannity to Matt Drudge to Senator Jim Inhofe‘s grandkids. Needless to say, it is driving the greener-than-thou community and the scientists who actually study this material crazy. Case in point: former DNC chair Howard Dean on ABC News last night expressing complete loss of belief in the legitimacy of Republican global warming detractors and claiming they simply “don’t believe in science.”
He commented that he didn’t believe it was possible for someone who used a weather anomaly to disprove a climate theory could have a legitimate grasp on the way science works:
“One of the most disturbing things about the Republican Party over the last couple of decades is that they just don’t believe in science any more. And that is not an approach that is likely to generate any kind of creative thinking…People who use snowstorms as an example of why global warming doesn’t exist don’t understand the science and they don’t care.”
As extreme as claiming than an entire political party refuses to believe in the veracity of a field as wide as science may seem, the competing theory as to why Republicans don’t believe in climate change actually ascribes malicious intent. The other talking point floating out in the liberal political sphere, as professed by the increasingly polarizing Bill Nye the Science Guy, is that Republicans “know that what they’re saying is wrong, but they’re pressing on anyway,” for ratings or attention or a number of non-scientific reasons. Whatever route they may take, it’s clear that the environmental lobby has given up on trying to understand the other side.
Watch Dean’s statements on the global warming debate below:
