California can burn, but climate change is now a matter of opinion, not science
- Robert Delaney says the environment was a neglected issue in the US midterm elections, even as wildfires devastate lives and property in California
- With misinformation spreading easily via social media, scientific findings no longer carry as much weight with the public as in the past
Democrats, in particular, might surmise that Trumpism has reached its limits. Many of America’s moderate Republicans had had enough of the virulent anti-immigration messaging spewed as the party’s main strategy in key races.
The party might have at least cut their losses in the House by focusing on strong economic growth, spurred by their cuts in taxes and regulations, which the traditional Republican base and a large swathe of centrist Democrats approve of.
Concerns about health care, social security and other social benefits also figured prominently into the political ads and debates before the polling stations opened on November 6.
One issue largely absent from the discourse that fuelled the pitched political battles of the midterms was the environment, astonishing considering that, just weeks earlier, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a dire warning.
Watch: Death toll rises as California battles wildfires
That this crisis isn’t a priority for American voters is very bad news for the world, and the reasons for this apathy are as disturbing as the environmental scenarios laid out by the IPCC.
Simply put, objectively verifiable facts, such as the data IPCC scientists use to reach their conclusions, no longer carry as much weight with the general public.
When 19th-century scientists discovered that germs were responsible for the infections that killed so many people undergoing surgery, doctors made sterile operating environments mandatory. No one questioned the need to make these changes because the new imperative was rooted in science.
When scientists discovered an indisputable link between smoking and lung cancer in the 1970s, the tobacco industry faced strict regulations and taxes meant to reduce the prevalence of the habit.
A few years later, after scientists showed a link between chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the atmosphere and damage to the Earth’s ozone layer, governments stepped in again, this time working together to ban CFCs.
Watch: The Baishui Glacier No 1 in China is melting fast
In recent years, however, science is no longer the province of scientists. The field has been commandeered by politicians working in concert with corporate interests.
The social media explosion created countless channels and platforms for this group to spread misinformation. In this environment, groups with an agenda can reach millions with dangerous blends of opinion and fact in a way that was impossible when the vast majority of voters got their information from a relatively small number of media outlets.
Suddenly, the influence of peer-reviewed science, delivered via news outlets where fact-checking and editing is standard practice, was diminished.
Foes of environmental regulations had another, less tangible, factor working in their favour.
Social media has also served to make Americans, and everyone else for that matter, more status-conscious than ever, and corporations have perfected the art of making us think we need faster cars, better clothes, fancier homes and more exotic vacation plans.
In the meantime, the worst wildfires in California’s history have continued to burn there, a situation that science tells us has more to do with the hydrocarbons humans send into the atmosphere than mismanagement of forests.
Fortunately, Trump and his Republicans have spurred faster economic growth, which will allow Americans to speed away from the wildfires in nicer cars.
Robert Delaney is the Post's US bureau chief, based in New York