Coal Tattoo

Head in the snow: Why W.Va. doesn’t move forward

Utility trucks head west bound on I64 crossing the St. Albans/Nitro bridge, in St. Albans, W.V., Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. (Tom Hindman /Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Utility trucks head west bound on I64 crossing the St. Albans/Nitro bridge, in St. Albans, W.V., Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. Photo by Tom Hindman.

When we last left the West Virginia Legislature, this was the sad report from The Associated Press:

phillips_rupertAs the snowstorm approached, a West Virginia delegate handed out sunscreen to his colleagues in an attempt to ridicule global warming.

Democratic Delegate Rupie Phillips passed around the bottles of sunscreen Thursday.

The lawmaker from coal-producing Logan County told his colleagues on the House floor, “I worry about you. You’ve got global warming going on. It’s not cold outside. It’s in your mind.”

Phillips said he was going to get everyone a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses, but they are “a little expensive.”

Seriously?

It’s hard to know where to start with this kind of silly stuff. Do we engage with it, and show the science that indicates, just for example that big blizzards in winter don’t disprove global warming and that climate change can actually make East Coast blizzards worse? Or do we ignore it, and hope it goes away?

The Beckley paper decided to take it on, with a very strong editorial that explained how we ignore science at our own risk:

It is clear Delegate Phillips is ignoring facts. Even the kids know that coal, which leaves a heavy carbon footprint in its wake, is a major contributor to global warming. Coal is a fossil fuel just like natural gas. When it is burned, it releases carbon dioxide into the environment. There, it helps trap heat and moisture in our little dome of life. It’s called the greenhouse effect — a pretty simple concept to grasp for anyone paying attention. And so, it gets hotter here on Earth and we get more extreme weather events. Even the oceans are warming up. It is undeniable. It is science. It has been researched. It is a fact. It is the truth.

But forget all of that. Forget the mountains of research. Forget all of the climate scientists around the world who have poured their intellectual curiosity into their work. According to Phillips, one winter weekend storm was all the evidence we needed.

 

People walk along the Capitol Reflecting Pool on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016, where snow is piled up as the nation's Capital tries to dig out following a massive snowstorm over the weekend. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

People walk along the Capitol Reflecting Pool on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016, where snow is piled up as the nation’s Capital tries to dig out following a massive snowstorm over the weekend. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The editorial went on:

We prefer science — not buffoonery — to inform any and all discussions about our environment, our climate and our future. We, too, prefer honest and informed politicians — not self-serving charlatans — who have the courage to speak hard truths to the people and insist on finding solutions for the people they were elected to serve. We want leaders who stop making a mockery of science. Question science? Of course. Scientists do that every day. Ignore science? At our own risk.

If that wasn’t enough to make this a remarkable political statement from a coalfield newspaper, it concluded:

How do we get out of this hole in the ground? That’s a tough one. But clearly, fossil fuels are our past, not our future. Politicians who mock widely held scientific research aren’t making themselves useful. Not until they buck up, study up, find an ounce of courage and take a run at finding solutions.