When Ideology and Science Conflict

The recent rain and flooding event from a series of “typical” rainstorms has brought to the forefront the challenges that come when ideology and science conflict.

You can read the entire article from the Washington Post at DeSantis rejects climate change rationale for record-breaking rain

From the article there is this, “The brouhaha over how to characterize the storm came a month after DeSantis signed a bill that removes most references to climate change in state law. The legislation, which is set to take effect July 1, eliminates climate change as a priority in making energy policy decisions, even though Florida routinely faces threats from extreme heat, deadly hurricanes and toxic algae blooms.”  Thus, having a significant rain event is conflicting with the governor’s policies.

What is ideology?  Defined as, “An ideology is a set of opinions or beliefs of a group or an individual. Very often ideology refers to a set of political beliefs or a set of ideas that characterize a particular culture.” In this case there is a significant segment of the Republican Party who deny the existence of climate change, preferring to think of the warming temperatures and their impacts to what they might call “climate variability.” There were ices ages, etc. and we are not seeing something that is human caused impacting the earth. I expect there might still be some who deny the earth is warming, but the facts don’t support that presumption. 

Another Washington Post article shows how hot 2023 was when compared to previous years

I don’t know how much longer climate deniers will be able to hold to their position. Likely it will be other people who will overwhelm them with their beliefs in what they see science is telling them and the flood waters and other disasters are proving to them about where they live and work.  Deniers might also argue with their insurance companies about the increase in their property insurance premiums or the fact that their carrier has dropped them due to their prognostications of future losses. Good luck making a political/ideological argument with them—they hold all the cards when it comes to prices and coverages.