The Great Carbon Bubble

tomdispatch.com — Our GOP presidential candidates are working hard to make sure no one thinks they’d appease chemistry and physics. At the last Republican debate in Florida, Rick Santorum insisted that he should be the nominee because he’d caught on earlier than Newt or Mitt to the global warming “hoax.” Most of the media pays remarkably little attention to what’s happening. Coverage of global warming has dipped 40% over the last two years. And when they do break their silence, some of our elite organs are happy to indulge in outright denial. It’s no secret where this denialism comes from: the fossil fuel industry pays for it. The open question is why the industry persists in denial in the face of an endless body of fact showing climate change is the greatest danger we’ve ever faced. As it happens, the answer is more interesting than you might think.

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