Eduardo Porter, of the New York Times, poses the question ... Are liberals impairing our ability to combat climate change? That may sound like a strange question, particularly to readers of The New York Times. Today, conservatives are the ones decidedly blocking any effort by the U.S. to curb its emissions of greenhouse gases. And yet even as progressive environmentalists wring their hands at the GOP climate change denial, there are biases on the Left that stray just as far from the scientific consensus.
The Left is turning anti-science also said Marc Andreessen, the creator of Netscape who as a venture capitalist has become one of the most prominent thinkers of Silicon Valley, told me not long ago. He was reflecting broadly about science and technology. His concerns ranged from the Liberal fear of genetically modified organisms to their mistrust of technology displacement of workers in some industries. San Francisco is an interesting case, he noted. The Left has become reactionary, he suggested.
Still, Liberal biases may be most dangerous in the context of climate change, the most significant scientific and technological challenge of our time, Porter suggests. For starters, they stand against the only technology with an established track record of generating electricity at scale while emitting virtually no greenhouse gases .. nuclear power.
Only 35% of Democrats, compared with 60% of Republicans, favor building more nuclear power plants, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center. It is the GOP that is closer to the scientific consensus on this matter. According to a separate Pew poll of members of the AAAS, 65% of scientists want more nuclear power too.
The Ted Cruz (and that of that OK Senator) argument that climate change is a hoax to justify a government takeover of the world is absurd. But the Bernie Sanders argument that toxic waste byproducts of nuclear plants are not worth the risks of the technology benefit might also be damaging.
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