The New York Times editorial today focuses on the influence of Dick Cheney's brand of denialism to explain the fact that none of the Republican candidates for U.S. Senate accept the scientific consensus that human activities are largely responsible for climate disruption.
The editorial "In Climate Denial, Again" notes that GOP candidates this election season are "re-running the strategy of denial perfected by Mr. Cheney a decade ago, repudiating years of peer-reviewed findings about global warming and creating an alternative reality in which climate change is a hoax or conspiracy."
The current crop of fact-challenged candidates running on the GOP ticket range from the outright deniers like Nevada candidate Sharron Angle to the "wiggly" position demonstrated by the likes of California's Carly Fiorina - a favorite of the billionaire Koch brothers - who remains "unsure" about the scientific foundation confirmed by all of the world's top scientific institutions.
According to the Times, "all are custodians of a strategy whose guiding principle has been to avoid debate about solutions to climate change by denying its existence — or at least by diminishing its importance. The strategy worked, destroying hopes for Congressional action while further confusing ordinary citizens for whom global warming was already a remote and complex matter."
The Times editors guess that former Vice President Dick Cheney "has to be smiling" about the lock-step denial and confusion campaign continued by this crop of Republican candidates.
Cheney, whose fortune was earned working for oil services giant Halliburton, was the top architect of the Bush administration's attacks on science, and his office was directly responsible for ordering Environmental Protection Agency officials to delete sections of multiple reports that focused on climate change threats.
Read the rest of the scathing editorial at The New York Times.
And check out the report by Center for American Progress detailing the denial of GOP Senate candidates.
Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.
There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.
You don't see this every day. President Barack Obama used Twitter today to call out climate deniers in Congress who are blocking political action to address climate change. 
The tweet links to this video released by Organizing for Action, the 501(c)(4) campaign group that promotes the President's national agenda.
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Comments
guiding principle
avoid debate about solutions to climate change .....if there isn't a problem why would we need to debate about solutions?
confusing ordinary citizens for whom global warming was already a remote and complex matter."
ah yes, the stupid, dumb, ignorant public.....you guys need new material.