In the aftermath of the mid-term elections that swelled the ranks of GOP climate change doubters, scientists are devising a plan to push back against the skepticism.
As the Los Angeles Times reports, the American Geophysical Union, the largest association of climate scientists in the U.S., will soon announce a roster of 700 climate experts ready to talk to the public about the impact of carbon emissions on the Earth’s climate.
“This group feels strongly that science and politics can’t be divorced and that we need to take bold measures to not only communicate science but also to aggressively engage the denialists and politicians who attack climate science and its scientists,” Scott Mandia, a science professor at Suffolk County Community College in New York, told the Times.
The plan includes a rapid-response team composed of scientists who will specialize in appearances before hostile audiences.
“People who’ve already dug their heels in, we’re not going to change their opinions,” Mandia said of the rapid-response group. “We’re trying to reach people who may not have an opinion or opinion based on limited information.”
Of the more than 100 incoming Republican members of Congress elected on November 2, half are declared climate-change skeptics, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think-tank.
Furthermore, prominent Republican House members have vowed to launch investigations into the Environmental Protection Agency and its efforts to regulate carbon emissions.
The wave of skepticism also means that hopes of passing a climate change bill with a cap-and-trade mechanism or simpler carbon tax, is likely dead, at least until 2012.
