Climate change isn't a joke. Republicans should stop treating it like one | Kate Aronoff

Rising temperatures are already a clear and present danger to millions of Americans, and Republican policy is making it worseFor Republicans, the climate crisis is a joke. On Tuesday in the Senate, Mike Lee, a Republican senator for Utah, spent several minutes on the floor showing pictures of Luke Skywalker on Hoth, giant seahorses and Ronald Reagan shooting off a machine gun whilst mounted atop a dinosaur. This was his bid to "treat the Green New Deal", which came up for a vote in that body on Tuesday, "with the seriousness it deserves". By way of a half-hearted alternative he drew on a favorite catch-all solution for the neoliberal set, suggesting woman have more children.For a growing stretch of the country, climate change isn't a joke but a deadly, imminent threat. Biblical flooding in the midwest this past month has left farmlands devastated and at least 20 people dead, all while the country lacks a comprehensive plan to handle such disasters. The Pine Ridge Reservation is experiencing a devastating state of emergency thanks in part to decades of federal neglect of and divestment from indigenous communities. And there are still people struggling to recover in Puerto Rico from 2017's devastating hurricane season - efforts being actively undermined by a sociopathic indifference to the fate of that island's residents. Rising temperatures are already a clear and present danger to millions of Americans, and disastrous Republican policy is already making it worse. Continue reading...