GOP lawmakers silent as new report delivers urgent 'code red' warning on climate

A new report on Monday from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations group dedicated to climate change science, warns that drastic and immediate effort is needed to slow climate change. Congressional Republicans are simply ignoring it.

A review of social media posts by House and Senate Republicans on Monday found zero mentions of the report or its findings. Only two lawmakers even mentioned the climate, mocking efforts to protect it.

The “Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis” report, the sixth assessment by the international body, relied on more than 14,000 studies. It reached the “unequivocal” conclusion that humans are inducing global warming and that it can “have profound consequences for the world’s social, economic and natural systems.”

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres urged immediate action to limit warming in the face of a “code red for humanity.”

“If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe,” he predicted. “But, as today’s report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses.”

Several Democratic lawmakers seized on the report to urge the U.S. to take immediate action.

“Today’s new @IPCC_CH report makes clear that acting on climate can’t wait,” tweeted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Democrats promised bold climate action—and we’re making it a vital part of infrastructure legislation.”

“Climate action is coming, because it must,” agreed Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz.

“Today’s IPCC report on climate change is an urgent call to action. We must take climate action now,” wrote New Mexico Rep. Melanie Stansbury, adding that in her state, “we already know this urgency—it’s time to act!”

Much of New Mexico is facing a dense layer of smoke from the massive wildfires currently burning in California — which experts say are being fueled by climate change.

But congressional Republicans — most of whom deny the science that humans are caucusing climate change — said nothing.

The lone GOP mentions of the climate on Monday came from Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson. Both mentioned it in the context of opposing Democratic proposals to address the environment.

Hinson bashed “out of control spending by the far-left” that would fund “a civilian climate corps.”

Greene warned that Democratic proposals to promote electric vehicles are a really just a scheme to “enslave America to China.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.