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I would be very interested to read more about this, and any explanations for it. I assume they're grounded in political science realities but I would love to kn
by savanaly 4y ago
I would be very interested to read more about this, and any explanations for it. I assume they're grounded in political science realities but I would love to know the details if you can remember a source.
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoI already linked a video that covers some of this history ("A CONSERVATIVE solution to global warming") in another comment, but basically the Koch brothers and a few other fossil fuel magnates freaked out when George H W Bush was going to commit to Kyoto, and started the long term suicide pact of the American right and climate change denial: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/kochland-examines-how-the-koch-brothers-made-their-fortune-and-the-influence-it-bought https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/kochland-examin... “Kochland” Examines the Koch Brothers’ Early, Crucial Role in Climate-Change Denial > The meeting, in 1991, was sponsored by the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank, which the Kochs founded and heavily funded for years. As Leonard describes it, Charles Koch and other fossil-fuel magnates sprang into action that year, after President George H. W. Bush announced that he would support a treaty limiting carbon emissions, a move that posed a potentially devastating threat to the profits of Koch Industries. At the time, Bush was not an outlier in the Republican Party. Like the Democrats, the Republicans largely accepted the scientific consensus on climate change, reflected in the findings of expert groups such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which had formed in 1988, under the auspices of the United Nations.