Republicans seeking the presidential nomination have been forced to abandon their scientific assessments of Climate change. Republican flip flops on climate change are evidenced by the positions of the GOP presidential contenders. Here is a brief summary of the changing views of Republican candidates Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.
Newt Gingrich
In 2008, Newt Gingrich did a PSA with then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) calling for action on climate change. He once said that “the evidence is sufficient,” but now that he is seeking the GOP presidential nomination Gingrich has asked for public hearings on climate change and a review of the National Academy of Science findings. Gingrich recently said, “Environmentalists, have been infiltrated over the last 40 years by people on the left who are against business and against local control and they use the environment as an excuse.”
Ron Paul
On the campaign trail in 2007, Ron Paul said that big emitters of CO2 should not be allowed to freely pollute the air because it is a violation of others’ property rights. Paul argued that big polluters should be taxed and he has even admitted to believing that human activity is at least partly responsible for global warming. More recently he has changed his position saying, “the greatest hoax I think that has been around for many, many years if not hundreds of years has been this hoax on the environment and global warming.”
Like Mitt Romney, both Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul have to manufacture strong views against climate science to even be considered for the GOP nomination.
© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.
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