Several conservative columnists and cartoonists have made a point of attacking

”The Day After Tomorrow” as representing the liberal and unscientific view of Global Warming. Funny, I don’t recall

conservative outrage over Armagedon (asteroid threatens Earth) or Independence Day (aliens attack) or Jurasic Park

(cloned dinosaurs) or myriad movies centering on volcanoes, tornados, giant insects, etc. Why does global warming in particular set off

conservatives? Surely it has nothing to do with the fact that people get rich through fossil fuels, but not through asteroids, aliens or

clones (yet)? It can’t simply be personal profit that motivates conservatives. Heaven forfend.

What the conservative view

about global warming reminds me of, first, is the rejection of evolution through natural selection (aka Darwinism). Not only do

conservatives deny the science behind evolution, they make up their own fake-science and demand equal time. In turn, I’m reminded of the

trial of Galileo, sentenced for challenging the false view held by those with power. In this, I can’t quite see how conservatives

”profit” from a flat-earth view, but then, what is conservatism (or what used to be called ”reactionary” before that became

mainstream) than a resistance to change (aka progress)?

What we desperately need is for the majority to be capable of reasoning

beyond one movie or one book. mjh