Climate Change May Soak, Define GOP Tampa Convention

I was getting ready to write about the ironies of the GOP's climate change denial position should a major storm disrupt the Tampa convention, but hurricane Isaac and the National Journal beat me to it.

While scientists caution that no single weather event can be directly attributed to climate change, major weather events associated with climate change, such as this summer’s drought, and the 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita, tend to fire up the incendiary debate about climate change -- which could happen once again if a massive political convention gets hit by a major storm.

The Republican party has shifted hard to the right on climate change since the last presidential election -- in 2008, McCain campaigned on the promise of tackling climate change, and embraced the cap-and-trade policy that has since become politically toxic within his own party. Now, denying the scientific findings linking oil and coal pollution to climate change has become mainstream in the GOP, and nominee Mitt Romney has publicly walked back his formerly expressed views that humans contribute to global warming. 

And Romney just yesterday outlined a plan to greatly expand fossil-fuel exploration and dependency, so has set the table for a full discussion of the consequences of fossil-fuel combustion = = greenhouse gas production and release, which scientists say is directly related to an overheating planet and more extreme weather.

Let's hope no one is injured as Isaac approaches or strikes Tampa, though the possibility of a political storm in any case is more than likely.