You obviously haven't read the fine print at the bottom of the DNC platform. Once the head of the E.P.A. has been appointed First Minister of the Secular Religion of Ecology, the First Minister will then appoint a Global Warming Tribunal to hear all charges of heresy against the State Religion.
The Global Warming Tribunal will determine the guilt or innocence of those charged. Certain mitigating circumstances will be considered, from past ownership of Birkenstocks and Volvo station wagons to the possession of recycled Whole Foods Shopping bags.
However, the decision of the tribunal is final. The decision is rendered underneath a marble bas relief tableaux of Rachel Carson, Chief Seattle and Lisa Simpson conquering James Inhofe, Sarah Palin and Mr. Burns on the field of legislation.
Those found guilty will have a Red
D carved in their forhead, for
DENIER.
Those found guilty of a second offence will have their ObamaCare revoked, and will be turned over to the Death Panels.
Let's not talk about platforms, shall we? A political party platform is a little like an online dating profile. What happens after you get to know someone? What is the outcome, the fruits of the relationship? Let's talk about legislation.
If you are running a business, you can do a lot of 'what if' scenarios. What if your main supplier goes belly up? Do you have backup communication strategies in the event of an internet or cellular failure? Forecasting future pitfalls helps quantify some elements of long-term risk.
If you are the Central Intelligence Agency or the Military, you need to look both short term and long term. What are the possible threats to the security of the United States? Their jobs (in part) are to prognosticate. Climate prognostication has been part of intelligence for years. What if the pattern of drought in California is the beginning of a larger, longer problem?
In the 1960s, the Soviet Union began damming most of the water going into to the Aral Sea, which was actually the fourth largest lake in the world.
The image on the left: The Aral Sea 1989. The image on the right: The Aral Sea in 2014. What used to be the Eastern Aral Sea is now called the Aralkum Desert.
There have been a myriad of ecological disasters that have affected the politics of the region. And this is a relatively tiny ecological displacement in one part of the world. The Military and C.I.A. are tasked with looking at Global threats. In the long term interests of the United States it behooves both the C.I.A. and the Military to study what the effects of climate change might be.
Not so fast, however.
The Atlantic wrote:Climate change is on the chopping block.
If Republicans get their way, the CIA and the Defense Department could soon have a lot less cash for climate research. The House GOP budget unveiled on Tuesday calls for cuts to CIA and DOD programs devoted to the study of global warming, despite the fact that the military has identified climate change as a major national security threat and a key priority.
"The Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, two of the most important agencies in our national security apparatus, currently spend part of their budget studying climate change," the budget states.
The fiscal blueprint lists climate-change funding at DOD and the CIA as "examples of areas where there should be room to cut waste, eliminate redundancies, and end the abuse or misuse of taxpayer dollars."
"There are dozens of programs that are duplicative or waste taxpayer dollars on activities that are not core functions of the federal government. This budget cuts or consolidates these programs and encourages Congress to take proactive steps toward reform," it states.
Translation: Even though you legitimately see climate change as a potential threat, don't you worry your pretty little heads about it. Relax. Stick your head in the sand. It's cool down here. We don't want you investigating the implications of climate change, there's quite enough of that, thank you very much.
The Republicans are intentionally denying the ability of the Defence Department and the Central Intelligence Agency to investigate what both believe to be a potential significant threat to the security of the United States.