Until the Democratic and Republican Conventions, discussion about climate change had been almost nonexistent. It was during the conventions that President Obama and Willard the climate change denier crossed verbal swords in a fight over the presence of man-made climate change.
In his charmingly uncharming way, Romney joked about President Obama’s efforts to halt man-made climate change at the Republican Convention, stating that “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet.” Ha…ha…ha. Maybe Romney has hedged his bets in favor of our planet’s destruction.
At the ensuing Democratic Convention the following week, President Obama admitted that he would continue to support policies combating climate change. President Obama noted, “Yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet…”. How dare our president attempt to do the right thing!
Climate change and its terrible effects are hardly a laughing matter. Yet Mitt Romney does it with such an alacrity that I often wonder if he believes other people actually matter.
For Romney, it’s clear that the only man-made climate change that he is worried about is the anthropogenic political climate change that he’ll need in order to take over the White House. And for Romney, all morals and all rules are only so good as they advance his own political interests.
Ironically, though, one poll has come out recently indicating that “pro”-climate change positions are actually a net benefit for politicians. Whoops, looks like another Team Romney mistake.
Of course, who’s to say where Mitt Romney will be on climate change a week from now. Maybe Romney will publicly conclude that climate change is a vast Martian conspiracy (if the political winds blow in that direction), or maybe he’ll decide that climate change is for real, after all.
But if Mitt Romney can laugh about climate change and its effects, what else will he be laughing about if he becomes President of the United States? Famine in Africa? Noncombatant deaths in Syria? Sharp reductions in world-wide biodiversity? Economic stagnation? Like the man himself, the truth remains to be seen.
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