Are Republicans the Party of Deadly Deception and Disinformation? Yes.

A Republican Party failure? You betcha!

Read this WaPo editorial-page piece on the willful deception on the part of fossil-fuel producers and their lackeys in the GOP and the conservative media. It's more than a bit sickening.

Recent scholarship documents the coordinated efforts of conservative foundations and fossil fuel corporations to promote this uncertainty. Amplified by conservative media, this campaign of disinformation and omission has significantly altered the nature of the public debate and led to political polarization around the issue, making meaningful legislative action nearly impossible.

These findings are supported by recent investigative news reports, which show that since the 1970s, top executives and scientists in the fossil fuel industry have been well aware of the evidence that their products amplified climate-warming emissions. They conducted their own extensive research on the topic and participated in ongoing scientific discussions. The American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group, even circulated the results to its members. By 1978, a senior executive at ExxonMobil proposed creating a worldwide “CO2 in the Atmosphere” research and development program to determine an appropriate response.

A clarifying epilogue to this column was found at the top of the comments (at the time I read them):

lguy1

12:20 PM PST

1. Has fossil fuel use been rapidly raising atmospheric CO2 levels? YES
2. Has this increased CO2 level been causing global temperatures to rise? YES
3. Have fossil fuel firms been denying these 2 facts despite knowing their essential truth? YES
4. Have conservative "think" tanks been aiding this denial? YES
5. Have conservative media been aiding in this denial? YES

Sums it up neatly, and tragically. Thanks, Exxon. Thanks, GOP. Thanks, American Enterprise Institute. Thanks, Fox News.