“Conservatism” hasn’t been conservative for a very long time now, I’m afraid. And the right wing is now so crazy that even the military is too liberal for it, which is pretty shocking. That should be a wake-up call to the Republican Party, but so far it hasn’t been.

Well, sure — I’ve been a scientist for three decades. Those Koch-funded documentaries are pretty good, actually, and do occasionally cut into right-wing orthodoxy (e.g. on evolution). You’re not giving me a reason why they’re teaching bad science; in fact I don’t think they are. They do seem to be propagating bad _policy_ and sometimes letting others who teach bad science slide. I don’t particularly favor thje Koch’s policy or societal recommendations, but the writing seems a bit of a thoughtless smear.

But the larger point is that our economy is largely based on science, and always has been. Consider: agriculture, based on genetics, organic chemistry, meteorology; steelmaking, based on the Bessamer process; electronics & communications, based on the work of Maxwell, Faraday, Marconi and others. That’s the short list.

Yes, fossil fuels are an important part of our economy today. But they won’t always be, and that change will happen whether or not we purposely cut back on CO2 emissions. The prudent policy is not to get left behind by others who do embrace the changing conditions.