If there's one thing Mitt Romney's good at, it's turning directly into whatever political winds are blowing through the Republican base. So maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that in a speech at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pa., he just said this:
My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.
This is 180 degrees different from the tune he was singing in June of this year.
… I believe the world’s getting warmer. I can’t prove that, but I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer. And number two, I believe that humans contribute to that … And so I think it’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and the global warming that you’re seeing.
What's even more frightening than the fact that Romney is a Frankenstein of stolen body parts whose only animating force is ambition? The fact that he intends to use his newfound animus toward reality as an excuse to gut the EPA.
I think the EPA, acting in concert with the president, really doesn’t like oil, gas, coal, and nuclear. I really do believe that the EPA wants to get its hands on all of energy and be able to crush it to cause prices to go through the roof. …The EPA should not be regulating carbon dioxide.
Young Americans, this is your future: Old white guys who will be dead just about the time that the first wave of the really severe climate impacts hits. Enjoy the end of the Holocene while it lasts.