Chris Mooney is a visiting associate in the 
Tom Toles has long been one of my favorite cartoonists--but even I was a little stunned when I saw his latest work, which essentially says, don't vote Republican if you care about climate change. I'm not used to cartoonists being this directly political--but I'm also not sure I have any problem with it.
In fact, I think the basic idea that Toles expresses is correct: There is a fundamental difference between the two parties on global warming. It's silly to shy away from that fact by citing the handful of Republicans that diverge from their party on this issue, or for that matter, the handful of Democrats who diverge. If you have to have 100 percent divergence on a topic across both parties before you can have a partisan issue, then there will never be any such thing as a partisan issue.
Comments
Every editorial page in the country should run this, even those that don't nomrally subscribe to the Washington Post syndication.
Posted by: Keanus | August 29, 2006 11:25 AM
An item in Science (11 August, p. 757) cites someone saying that he epects Bush to appoint Susan Dudley to head his regulatory affairs office while Congress is in recess--another stealth appointment of an anti-regulatory fox for the environmental henhouse.
Posted by: mark | August 29, 2006 12:49 PM
If only the words "global warming" were replaced with "climate change." The first allows the ignorant to assume/claim that unless all signs point to warming, there is nothing to worry about. So if glacial melt causes the Gulf Stream's behavior to change and the temperate areas of northern Europe to get cooler, not warmer, ergo global warming is false and we need do nothing. Especially if it's Europeans who are being inconvenienced.
Posted by: paul | August 29, 2006 1:33 PM
Not used to political cartoonists? If you havent seen Tom Tomorrow, you must:
http://www.thismodernworld.com/
Posted by: Splash | August 29, 2006 3:07 PM
OK. So it's official. No more C02 or we're all gonna die.
So. Are you environmentalists willing to abandon your opposition to nuclear power yet?
After all, the fate of the entire human race is at hand, right? A cartoon Earth said so, so it must be true.
Posted by: rumplestiltskin | August 29, 2006 5:31 PM
Greenpeace ≠ all environmentalists.
Posted by: Davis | August 29, 2006 6:11 PM
Davis - don't feed the trolls
Posted by: dand | August 29, 2006 10:14 PM
Sorry, dand, but also this:
Cartoon in WaPo ≠ Sum of evidence for anthropogenic climate change
And I always feel that cartoons are more or less preaching to the choir. If humans won't accept any of the peer-reviewed evidence which supports a hypothesis of ACC, or the considered opinions of climatologists, and yet change their minds following this cartoon, then what does that say about our critical faculties?
Personally, though, I find Tom Toles' cartoon very poignant. That's probably because I'm a Green Party member in the UK and therefore obviously an environmental bleeding-heart ;-) The fact that, as a scientist, I'm convinced by the evidence (which is why I joined the GP) is nothing to do with it :-p
(Oh, and hello CM. Nice blog!)
Posted by: Peter Barber | August 30, 2006 12:18 AM
Paul
It's not that simple. The good guys have to think as deeply as the far right's psychomarketers.
Here's Republican word guru Frank "Death Tax" Luntz from the infamous 2003 Luntz memo, 16 leaked pages on environmental politics from his 200+-page Republican briefing book. The pages are all about language, how to spin environmental and public health issues.
Republicans have unceasingly heeded this advice since.
.
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Chris,
Tole's has long been a favorite of mine also.
Posted by: SkookumPlanet | August 30, 2006 2:41 AM
It's not just Earth. The entire Universe has a liberal bias.
"The Truth has left its footprints in the dust between the stars."
Posted by: John M. Burt | August 31, 2006 3:56 AM