Now that five of the seven Republican candidates for governor have declared global warming a figment in the imaginations of the world's scientists, we can move on to discussing how the sun revolves around the Earth.
"I don't accept the premise that man is the cause of global warming, if global warming even exists," state Sen. Kirk Dillard said at a recent forum in WIll County sponsored by local tea baggers.
"Global warming is not created by man, and anybody who says that, it's just bad science. It's not true," said DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom.
Not to be outdone, pundit and communications consultant Dan Proft called Al Gore an "enviro-terrorist."
Only the two candidates who didn't attend the forum didn't deny global warming. Exactly.
Former state Attorney General Jim Ryan told AP that he believes global warming is real and that humans contribute to it, but lest tea baggers start calling him a socialist, he added that how much is caused by humans "is a matter of spirited debate."
At least he tried to thread the needle. Former Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna "did not respond to repeated requests for his views," AP reports.
Politics
Apparently McKenna's campaign is finding it much more difficult than Ryan's to carve out some language that acknowledges reality without totally turning off the fringiest elements of his party, whose votes he wants even if he probably privately thinks they're nuts. Or maybe their polling's just not in yet.
Reasonable people can disagree, but candidates for public office aren't exactly reasonable people. As AP notes, 18 scientific societies in the United States have reported to Congress that humans are the "primary driver" behind global warming. An international climate change panel comprised of hundreds of experts from 113 governments found that the existence of global warming is "unequivocal." Plus, there's that Al Gore movie.
Coming next: Republican candidates for governor question gravity!
Which would at least be fun. If the governor's campaign turns into a debate about evolution, we all lose.
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.
