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Comment by tobltobs | Hacker News Reader

It wont help that North Carolina Senate in 2012 voted to prohibit agencies and towns from using the latest scientific data on sea-level rise in coastal management decisions.

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In another Republican Party controlled state, Florida, they've also forbidden agencies to talk about climate change, global warming.

The truth will eventually come out by way of reality, but people will suffer for their greed.

California hardly has a Republican party at all anymore but produces more greenhouse gas than any other state.

And before you try to rationalize this with "per capita" arguments....you don't lose your home or get cancer "per capita"...the absolute numbers matter and California has higher absolute numbers than any other state.

What state has the most people and largest economy?

Ok.

So since the USA has the largest global economy it should also get a pass? Good thing then we didn't sign the Paris Accord, being the largest economy and all.

The Chinese will also be happy to find out that by virtue of having the largest population, they also get a ready-made excuse.

You seem to be acting like California is not taking the most active steps among all the states for curbing emissions. I have absolutely no idea what point you're trying to make.

Your base argument is hugely flawed. Take a second look.

Texas produces nearly twice as much CO2 as California.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_carbon_...

2. https://www.eia.gov/environment/emissions/state/analysis/ima...

And before you try to rationalize this with "per capita" arguments

This is moronic. After all, the other 49 states combined produce more greenhouse gas than California. Don't try to rationalize that with "per capita" or "per land area" arguments, the absolute numbers matter.

your points are true at an individual level but CA is the 3rd largest state and has, by far, the largest population. It is roughly the same size and population as all of Spain, for example.

Not that I see this as totally implausible but I would love to see a source for this claim.

In the mean time it only adds additional ammo to the Cities versus States "Civil Cold War" going on right now. Cities like Miami absolutely know and are tracking climate change, because they have to, and the complaints of City Mayors to State Legislatures with Blinders On show how painfully divorced most US States currently are from their tax bases, having willfully gerrymandered themselves to give a disproportionate vote to rural concerns over urban concerns.

It's not because they wanted to give rural votes more weight.

The Republican Party ran a massive, coordinated operation to take over state legislatures, who control the redistricting process, to ensure GOP dominance in the House.

In 2012, more votes total were cast for Democrats, but the Republicans retained 33-seat majority. The state laws ignoring climate change in favor of fossil fuel business is just a side-benefit.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAP

Oh yes, they knew what they were doing. Rural votes typically vote more conservatively and urban votes typically more progressively/liberally. Giving rural votes more weight was definitely the strategy to get more weight to conservative votes. The cities versus rural counties "Cold Civil War" is absolutely the intentional consequence of the Republican strategy over the last many decades. The next question is how long this particular civil war stays cold, given how much increasing ammo (lit. and fig.) is being stockpiled by each side.

Honestly, everybody knows what the game is. The left should get their shit together and play the game that counts (winning elections), rather than the one that doesn't (% of popular vote).

Wait what? Do you have a source for this?

The first result in my Google search:

https://www.ucsusa.org/publications/ask/2012/NC-sea-level.ht...

It will as a cautionary tale if nothing else. If NC's groundwater is polluted from coal ash and their tourist industry devastated from their head-in-the-ground attitude while South Carolina thrives it'll eventually force change, despite (IMHO) lobbying by energy industry interests.

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