Why U.S. lawmakers failed to act on climate change decades ago
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-u-s-lawmakers-failed-to-act-on-climate-change-decades-ago
Transcript excerpt:
HARI SREENIVASAN: So why did we fail? What was it that created that paralysis that we’re so familiar with today?
NATHANIEL RICH: Well, there’s sort of a simple political answer, a very narrow answer I suppose you could make which is that in the first George Bush administration, his chief of staff—former governor of New Hampshire John Sununu who is an engineer, a Ph.D.—was very skeptical about the science of global warming and he suspected that it was being used by a cabal of folks who wanted to suppress growth and economic advancement and all of that, and he managed to win an internal fight within that White House against action. That’s that’s kind of the most limited possible answer. That piece tells the story of that political conversation.
I think the larger answer has
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But wait! Was it Sununu or Limbaugh who is to blame (or praise!)?
https://washingtonmonthly.com/
“That was, of course, before Limbaugh convinced the Republican base that climate change was a hoax–and attacked Republicans such as Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for supporting policies to reduce carbon emissions.
In a 2007 Vanity Fair article, James Wolcott noted that Limbaugh had arguably done more than any American political or media figure to prevent the United States from formulating sensible climate policy”
