Last week, senator Marco Rubio, by many counts a rising star in conservative political circles in the US, answered simple questions put to him on climate change.



His comments are particularly striking in that they follow a major report put out by the US administration and respected scientists on the observations we are already making of climate change. That report, the National Climate Assessment, points to increases in floods, more severe droughts, heavier precipitation, rising sea levels, and other markers of climate change.

The report also highlights the tremendous economic costs of climate change, costs that will get worse if we fail to act. It is also striking because his own state, Florida, is a state that is particularly threatened by climate change. Try saving Miami as sea level rises.



So what did Rubio say? First he said that he doesn’t believe the scientists when they say there are actions we can take today that would have an impact on solving the problem.

This statement flies in the face of facts. It is a fact that if we reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases, we will lessen the degree and thereby the impact of climate change. This fact has been reported in numerous separate studies as well as in synthesis reports.



Rubio then continues by saying that the climate is always changing but that scientists

take a handful of decades of research and say that this is now evidence of a longer term trend that is directly and almost solely attributable to manmade activity

The fail here is huge. First, scientists don’t look at just a “few decades”. There is a whole branch of study called paleoclimatology. This branch of science goes back hundreds of thousands to millions of years in order to assess the relationship between our atmosphere and the climate. In fact, I published a paper on this topic recently hoping to improve paleoclimate studies. And don’t forget the scientists who, in the 1800s, warned of changes to the climate as we emit greenhouse gases. Was that just a few decades ago?



But notice that Rubio tries to be careful with his choice of words. He says “directly” and “almost solely attributable” to manmade activity. Was he careful enough? Not quite.

We scientists know that humans are directly responsible for the majority of climate change in the past few decades. Furthermore, the longer term trend is almost solely attributable to humans. Sure, there are temperature fluctuations year-to-year, just as we have weather fluctuations. But the trend is us. We have overwhelmed the natural climatic cycles.



Rubio also stated that he does not believe that

human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way that scientists are portraying it

This statement flies in the face of actual real-world evidence we have been collecting over the past decade. These may be his opinions, but they are unsupported by fact.



I have said this before but it is worth repeating. How we handle climate change should not be a political issue.

The climate change we are seeing, and will see, affects us all. I don’t know a single conservative or progress politician who wants to harm the climate. I know many conservatives that take our treatment of the Earth’s natural system seriously. I also know conservatives who recognise that doing nothing about climate change is a choice. It is a choice with tremendous economic consequences.



When we look back on this issue, at the legacies that are being created right now, conservatives will regret making climate obstructionism a litmus test for their politicians.

