It is fashionable to label skeptics of aggressive government climate action as “deniers” of science. Yet as the election outcomes in Australia, Canada, and the United States show, those favoring a carbon tax are themselves denying political science.
An article last month in the New York Times showcases the futility of climate legislation, regardless of one’s views on the desirability of government measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, Somini Sengupta’s piece explained that the Australian government was toppled because of climate policy, and then drew parallels to the United States and Canada. Whether it was her intention, Sengupta demonstrated that if indeed climate change is a problem, activists should realize that the political process offers a very unreliable “solution.”