The Right and Global Warming

I've just returned back from New York, where I didn't have a TV, so this might be old news, but I as I sat in my mom's family room where she keeps the Fox News Chanel running, well, pretty much all day, I saw this ad:



Now, I don't really like Pat Robertson, and I certainly don't like Al Sharpton, but this ad struck me for two reasons. First, and most obvious, is the non-partisan nature of the ad: we have both Republicans and Democrats getting behind a major cause. And it seems like that's been a while since that happened.

But what struck me more was Pat Robertson's presence in the ad. The Christian Right has been loathed to get behind the idea of conservationism, mostly, I think, because it has become such a political issue. To my mom, who if nothing else is a member of the Christian right, global warming smacks of Al Gore and leftists. The science of the matter (either way you look at it) doesn't interest her so much as the political nature of the problem. And I think that goes for many Americans, especially here in middle America. (Here I am reminded of my U.S. history class my sophomore year of high school, the same class in which we were forced to write an essay on why the Republican party was more biblical than the Democratic party, when I made some environmentally friendly comment and was accused by several kids of being a "tree-hugger.") S for Pat Robertson to get on board with climate change and global warming...well, that's a big deal.