Ann Marie Buerkle’s win in the 25th Congressional District marked a sad day for sane representation of Syracuse in the House of Representatives, especially for those concerned about the environment.

In a televised debate in October, Buerkle stated that ‘a lot of the global warming myth has been exposed.’ Really? There’s actually no myth, just the factual basis for climate change theory and a slight level of skepticism as to the scale of the observable phenomenon. This is a dangerous delusion from which soon-to-be Rep. Buerkle is suffering. One she likely doesn’t even understand properly, asserting at another point in the campaign that ‘the jury is still out on global warming’. The jury is in, and guess who is guilty of having barely a child’s grasp of the science? You, Buerkle.

Although climate scientists may have slight disagreements as to the exact consequences of climate change (differences such as whether we should expect global temperatures to rise 2 or 5 degrees over the next century), there is no ‘global warming myth.’ She’s either ignorant of the science — to which I am fully willing to offer her my copy of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s findings on climate change — or actively denying the obvious, which makes her unfit to serve elected office.

Buerkle secured her spot on the loony bandwagon by saying leaked e-mails at the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit in 2009 among climate scientists somehow prove there is some conspiracy behind climate change. The e-mails uncover skepticism toward the long-term climate models and how they aren’t easily integrated with the short-term data, which show slight dips in global climate and ocean temperatures in the 1960s and 1970s.

This is an interesting scientific debate, but it in no way contradicts the fundamental facts behind climate change. In fact, all the scientists have since been entirely cleared of scientific wrongdoing, a fact most anti-environmentalists refuse to accept.

On her website, Buerkle offers her view on the issues of energy and the environment. I had hoped to find a shred of sanity, perhaps a reluctant admission that a healthy environment means a better society or that scientific consensus should be the main prerogative behind public policy. Sadly, what I saw was a jumble of misinformed Tea Party talking points that make me question Buerkle’s grip on reality. She offers that ‘responsible stewardship of the nation’s resources and environment’ is a worthwhile goal, to which I agree fully. But then she enters into a delusional rant against cap-and-trade legislation, falsely asserting it would ‘create a new national energy tax’ and destroy jobs.

Well, if you believe in proper ecological stewardship, how will you help enact that at the legislative level? She seems to offer no solutions whatsoever. At a time when we barely have a generation to seriously alter our greenhouse gas output or be forced to pump sulfuric acid into the stratosphere to delay what we have known for decades was coming, this is not the right person to have representing us.

No doubt she will join in lockstep with the Republican majority in actively subverting ecological sanity, bringing our environment ever closer to the brink of total climate instability.

We have only ourselves to blame. The ignorant are only elected because concerned citizens have failed to act properly. I guarantee Syracuse University had enough liberal voters to have kept Dan Maffei in office, but they failed to turn out on Nov. 2. Barely 20 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted, which is a complete embarrassment for our generation. Hopefully, we don’t have to tell our grandchildren that the reason they have to deal with resource wars, millions of climate refugees and a completely altered environment that will affect every aspect of human society was because our generation was too lazy.

But that gets more likely with every election we fail to elect sensible leaders. And for now we’re stuck with clueless anti-environmentalists like Buerkle.

Luke Lanciano is a junior political science major. His column appears every Tuesday, and he can be reached at lllancia@syr.edu.

 

Published on November 29, 2010 at 12:00 pm