In a piece at the subscription-only Politico Pro, Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder boldly refused to say whether or not he believes humans are contributing to climate change:
Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder said this afternoon that climate change is happening, but he declined to say whether humans are causing it. […]Snyder said he believes climate change is real.
“It’s a concern in terms of both its impact and the volatility it’s having on our weather patterns,” he said. “I don’t get into how we got there because that tends to go off into a discussion that I don’t think has real value.”
But does he personally think it is caused by humans? “Is that relevant or not? No,” said Snyder. “We have an issue. We need to address it.”
Snyder went on to give a typically corporatist statement tying environmentalism to corporate success saying, “If you want strong environmental policies, how do you get the resources to make all those investments? You need a strong economy growing.”
It takes a true corporate shill to say that strong environmental policies require a strong economy (which is corporatistspeak for lower regulation and lower corporate taxes.) I would suggest that having strong environmental policies come before everything else and that we shouldn’t relax our environmental regulations every time the economy hits a sticky patch.
Also, understanding “how we got there” is EXTREMELY important because it informs us on how to solve this increasingly intractable problem and how to avoid it again in the future.
Duh.
Governor Snyder is a one-note song. Everything he talks about comes back to the debunked trickle down, supply-side economics theory that if we benefit corporations, everyone will benefit. Don’t forget that it was a Republican way back when who called it “Voodoo Economics”.
And, seriously, Governor Snyder, are you really so spineless that you can’t say what the vast majority of climate scientists have been telling us for decades; that human activity is a major cause of climate change?
Way to take a courageous stand, Governor.
Sheesh.
[Snyder caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog]
