Which is why it's a bummer that the last good communicator on the topic was probably Al Gore. Lots of great science that I'm happy to see done, but there's nobody out there doing a very good job of making people care.
I think Al Gore did more harm than good. He made himself the face of global warming and it helped spark a partisan backlash. There was a time when Republicans were not particularly skeptical of global warming. That shifted as climate change and Al Gore became more and more synonymous in the public consciousness.
Is that Al Gore's responsibility or is the Republican's responsibility of their policies being basically "anything that Democrats do is bad and therefore we oppose it"?
I don't think it's his responsibility, but that was the outcome. I would say most of the responsibility lies with the fossil fuel industry and their PR agencies who funded propaganda that took advantage of the situation.
I thought Gore's road show was pretty good. It certainly changed how I thought about climate change, but I can understand your argument.
Probably the last person who was able to effect big positive change was Nixon.
There isn't, right? Their gameplan is to state a need for evidence to delay, delay, delay while they and their backers enrich themselves at the cost of everyone else.