City Council candidates: 4 of 12 believe humans impact climate change
Ah, the self-assured art of being a climate skeptic. It’s like Davy Crockett at the Alamo, holding out despite overwhelming odds. 
In today’s Spokesman, please take note of Jonathan Brunt’s revealing article on Spokane City Council candidates views on climate change and our region at large featuring interviews with various local professors. Jonathan Isacoff, a Gonzaga University political science professor who studies environmental politics, said it best: “But the fact itself has not been debated among the scientific community for at least a decade. Only politicians, talk radio people and some industrial lobbyists – and only in America – continue to debate the question.” Of course, too often science takes a back seat to ideology. Or, as candidate Jon Snyder said, one of the four believers: “A lot of people get hung up on the scientific evidence. What gets lost in the shuffle is there’s a lot of common-sense remedies for this that actually make really good economic development sense.” That statement brings us back to the Sustainability Action Plan. Submitted to the City Council in May after Mayor Mary Verner assembled a climate task force for recommendations such as lowering our city’s fuel cost, all their hard work was for naught when the council amended the language to simply accept the report, rather than adopt any of it. It was a disappointing moment in city politics and after Brunt’s story, it goes without saying who we’re rooting for on the August 18th primary. Also, check out The Spovangelist voter’s guide.
And so readers are well-equipped for a debate, visit a DTE favorite from Grist: How To Talk To A Climate Skeptic.
