When it comes to the environment, propaganda and bluster trumps common sense and hard science

James Rowan at The Political Environment  - - an excellent blog you should bookmark for daily reading immediately - - recently posted:

From Barack Obama to John McCain, politicians are catching up with the public, which wants action to confront and minimize global warming.

 One lesson to be gleaned: Rightist talk radio, from Limbaugh down to our local squawker Mini-me's, do not represent or move opinion on this issue.

I wish so much that I could agree. The sad fact is that constant repetition and deployment of taglines like "environmental wacko" (the two words now go together like peanut butter and jelly in the minds of many mainstream Americans) by right-wing media clowns is very, very effectively reinforcing an anti-environmental viewpoint. The same machine that equated Iraq with 9/11 is making anyone concerned with sustainable growth or sane ecological policy a "tree hugger."

The politicians may "get it," but they still have to resonate with the mainstream in order to enact real change.

There's an excellent story about Limbaugh's intellect-free, but effective, campaign against the green movement in this month's Vanity Fair.