I don't think you can blame this on "the left" whatever that means, any more than you can stick all of this on a single issue on "the right". And your points ab

I don't think you can blame this on "the left" whatever that means, any more than you can stick all of this on a single issue on "the right". And your points about ideology are just wrong. These are complex coalitions of politicians with many different reasons behind why they act the way they do, but this entire "left vs. right" ideology is just post facto reasoning for the most part. If you look at "the right" you have: 1. Religious Conservatives that genuinely believe the Earth is 6000 years old and Evolution is a complete fabrication. These people have always been anti-Science. Antivaxxers and climate change denialists are a just the latest round of this. 2. People who are employed or supported by the fossil fuel industry. This is the same unreasonable skepticism that you hear from the Tobacco industry, the Patent trolls, or any other group with alot of money and few scruples. They found allies in "the Right" who could use their campaign dollars and didn't care much about this issue so they just go along with it as it allowed them to get backing for issues they do care about. 3. People who just don't like "the left" and believe that if people they don't like are saying it, it must be false. This is probably the largest bloc. They don't care about climate change (much) and just follow the lead on this issue because the people who are saying "climate change isn't happening" also agree with them on a number of other issues that they do care about.