ericgrimsrud

In June of 2012, one of my first posts on this blog was entitled “Our Smart Idiots”  and related the documented fact that that among the politically conservative, those who have achieved higher levels of education are more likely to doubt the notion of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) than conservatives with less education. A prime example of this phenomenon used to be the Fox News commentator, Charles Krauthhammer, who is considered by many to be a leading visionary on many topics by the Right.  He is indeed highly educated and has achieved a multitude of professional accomplishments not only in journalism but also in his field of psychiatric medicine.  However, a bit more than one year ago in an issue of the Washington Post, he mistakenly held forth on the subject of global warming (see it at  http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-obamas-global-warming-folly/2013/07/04/a51c4ed0-e3fc-11e2-a11e-c2ea876a8f30_story.html.  In that article, Krauthammer used his cleverness to cast as much doubt as he could on the need for addressing man-caused global warming. He was then such an excellent example of this phenomenon that I declared him the winner of my “Smart Idiot Award for 2013” in a previous post (December 2013).

Therefore, I was exceedingly pleased to read his latest opinion piece dealing with the subject of climate change (at http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-raise-the-gas-tax-a-lot/2015/01/08/5b4b407c-976f-11e4-aabd-d0b93ff613d5_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1) which was entitled “Raise the gas tax.  A lot”.  The plan he proposes in that article is essentially the same as the Carbon Tax / Dividend plan that has been promoted numerous time on this blog (see description posted on December 2014).  His plan includes a stiff carbon tax in order to increasingly discourage use of CO2-emitting technologies as well as a return of the revenue thereby collected to individual citizens via the IRS system.

So I say “Halleluiah!!” Perhaps we can get more of the intelligent leaders of the GOP to recognize the prevailing views of science concerning this all-important issue.

With this change, I will now award another conservative columnist, George Will, the “Smart Idiot Award for 2014” in the hope, however faint, that this might also help him wise up. In his very recent piece (see http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-climate-changes-instructive-past/2015/01/07/2ae70ee6-95d2-11e4-aabd-d0b93ff613d5_story.html), Will continues to spread doubt concerning man’s effect on climate by displaying his lack of respect for or knowledge of existing science concerning the forces of nature. Unless Will is talking about the history of baseball, he typically provides only tiny thoughts using the largest words he can find in his dictionary – leaving the reader wondering what exactly he is trying to say, if anything. I have therefore sent him a copy of my book, “Thoughts of as Scientist, Citizen and Grandfather on Climate Change”, and hope that the words I use in it are not too short and simple as to be dismissed by his peculiar thought processes. With the relentless advance of global warming, I hope that he will also wise up in the coming year just as Krauthammer appears to have done in the last.