Republican's inner climate conflict

Every now and then the journal Scientific American publishes articles that give insight into issues you may not have otherwise known existed. In their recent article "Green republicans Confront Climate Change Denial" we are provided with information on how conservative environmentalists are pushing free enterprise approaches, such as the carbon tax instead of regulations, as a suitable solution to rising temperatures. The question remains how realistic these solutions are. We now know that 2016 was the hottest year on record, setting a new high for the third year in a row, with scientists firmly putting the blame on human activities that drive climate change. The final data for 2016 was released in January by the three key agencies – the UK Met Office and Nasa and Noaa in the US – and showed 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have been this century.

The article reports how President Donald Trump's outspoken doubts about climate change and his administration's efforts to roll back regulation to combat it have stirred a sleepy faction in U.S. politics: the Republican environmental movement. The various groups represent conservatives, Catholics and the younger generation of Republicans who, unlike Trump, not only recognize the science of climate change but want to see their party wrest the initiative from Democrats and lead efforts to combat global warming. However, the current approaches seem to offer less hope than a snowball may have in that proverbial place.