Follow the money... why do people go along with it ?

A new study adds some more substance to what many know: a very few, very rich men have been playing puppet masters and driving the "climate-change counter movement's" publicity campaign which is solely dedicated to stonewalling all substantive efforts to understand and mitigate what we are doing to our atmosphere.

The real tragedy is that these groups use blatantly phony tactics, repeatedly misrepresent science.  They spend most their effort manufacturing scandals, witch-hunts, and character assassination   -  in ways that an informed public ought to be able to see through.  But, Americans seem to have become so Hollywood-ized that they don't care to differentiate between a con job and honest professionalism anymore: "Just tell us what we want to hear."

Why?  Is it because we have come to expect that every material desire is our birth-right and damn anything or anyone who dares suggest otherwise?

But, the reality is that this isn't the 1970s anymore. 
It's not about climatologists making conjectures anymore!

Our planet's Arctic Ice cap is disappearing at an astounding rate;
and the rest of the cryosphere isn't doing much better;
the planet as a whole continues warming; 
the Jet Stream continues getting weirder;
driving ever more extreme weather patterns and infrastructure damaging events.

CO2 IS an key greenhouse gas and does act as atmospheric insulation;
Society IS, in essence, adding extra thermo blankets onto our planet and the warming will continue.

This isn't open to rational debate anymore, the evidence has become too overwhelming.

But, it sure is open to endless irrational stonewalling 

USA Government shutdown may cancel entire Antarctic research season for Americans

It has been heartbreaking realizing that we have a group of Republican Representatives who literally want to destroy the USA government they had sworn themselves to uphold.*  It adds to the growing feeling of hopelessness in the face of global issues that need an adult's objectivity rather than a self-obsessed child's destructive tantrums.

Dogma over thinking and rational problem solving.  Rejection of learning and compromise.  Disregard for all they don't understand.  Contempt for others.  Those seem to be core principles of the TeaParty faction.  And with this attitude we are supposed to meet the growing challenges we have created for ourselves? 

*{All this over a law that got passed fair and square and that had been cleared by US courts.}

To underscore the Republican disconnect from the real world I'm sharing a few news stories including a complete REPOST of Andrew Freedman's October 1st Government Shutdown Affects Weather, Climate Programs.  First there is this NPR story from yesterday:

Even Antarctica Feels Effects Of The Government Shutdown

by NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE