In today’s exercise of examining politics and climate change, let’s look at the “I’m not a scientist” card.

I’m not a scientist

What politician, when asked whether humans are causing climate change responded, “I’m not a scientist”, and moved on to other issues?

John Boehner.
Scott Walker.
Jeb Bush.
Bobby Jindal.
Marco Rubio.
Joni Ernst
Mitch McConnell

If you answered all of the above, you’d be correct. GOP office holders and office seekers have nearly all jumped on the bandwagon of claiming total ignorance on climate change.  Strangely, after admitting that they have no clue about the issue these ploiticians take a swipe at scientsists, AKA, those who do know something about climate change, before moving on.
And they then act as if that is an acceptable endpoint in the discussion. 

Hey guys, you may not be a climate scientist, but, you certainly have access to plenty of scientists all around you at hundreds of universities, NASA, the EPA, and other places. Here’s a radical idea. You could ask some scientists to brief you, and learn about the topic. There’s a lot of interest in this and some very smart people think it’s important. Don’t you owe it to your constituents to learn about the issue?

Let’s look at this another way. Suppose a governor from say, Wisconsin or Louisiana. You really don’t know anything about ISIS beyond what you see on the news, because it’s not the job of a governor.  Suppose he decides to run for President, and a reporter asks him how significant a threat ISIS presents. Would you be content if that candidate answered, “I’m not a foreign policy expert”, and left it at that?

I mean, if he wants to be in a position of national leadership, wouldn’t you expect him to acquire some expertise in the field?
Of course you would.
So why is ignorance of climate change and acceptable end position?





http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/10/03/3575849/not-a-scientist/

Why Republicans Keep Telling Everyone They’re Not Scientists
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/why-republicans-keep-telling-everyone-theyre-not-scientists.html?_r=0