Global warming unnecessarily heats up politics

Across the country on April 22 thousands of people took part in the “March for Science.”

Now the movement allegedly supports science in general, but let’s be honest: this was about global warming. And when it comes to global warming, things can get heated.

For more than a decade we’ve been debating this issue. One side claims the other hates science, and the second says the first is a conspiracy theory. What a sad state of affairs. America once gathered to watch the Moon landing. Now we bicker over the dinner table.

I blame both the left and the right, and for different reasons. To begin with my friends on the right, I agree: the “97 percent of scientists believe humans are causing global warming” talking point is a bit misleading.

Nonetheless, a vast majority of climate scientists say that global warming is a thing and humans are part of the cause, as shown by the University of Illinois and the National Academy of Sciences. It would be foolish to deny massive amounts of scientific evidence.

That, however, isn’t a call to stop asking questions. An important part of science is always preserving a hint of skepticism. But please, use reason.

I’m not asking people to blindly submit themselves to believe something just because someone says it’s science –what I’m asking is to give the facts a fair hearing.

I believe if people do, they’ll find that global warming is a legitimate issue.

To my friends on the left, allow me to be blunt. The way climate change is used as a political issue is unhealthy. Yes, science tell us that the earth is warming. What science doesn’t tell us is what to do about it.

It doesn’t tell us to create a carbon tax, it doesn’t tell us to punish coal companies and it doesn’t tell us how to convince China to change. Furthermore, it doesn’t tell us if we should destroy the livelihoods of coal miners, or force homeowners to pay more for energy.

Those are all policy questions, questions that arise in a very complex situation.

So please, stop accusing someone who opposes a carbon tax of being a science-denier. Stop insulting those who would rather let the free market come up with a solution – after all, it’s private companies that are trying to take us back to the moon and build efficient electric cars.

Stop attacking people for asking questions when reports say that the ozone layer is healing. Those questions are what keep science honest.

Remember, Isaac Newton’s gravity equations were wrong, yet for 300 years 100 percent of physicists believed him. It took one man by the name of Albert Einstein to prove Newton wrong.

Lastly, if the left is so quick to support science, then when will it admit that GMO’s are okay, or that maybe gender has a biological basis?

I’m not afraid to say climate change is real. I’m also not afraid to say that I don’t know all the answers.

Neil deGrasse Tyson put it perfectly in a recent video: “So once you understand that humans are warming the planet, you can then have a political conversation about that. You can say, ‘Are they carbon credits, do we do this, do we put a tariff on, do we fund, do we subsidize.’ Those have political answers.”

So, my friends on the right, please reach that understanding. And my friends on the left, please realize there’s a political conversation to be had, and don’t end it before it begins.

Gerberding is a member of College Republicans and Honors Association.