The "controversy" exists in every place that the Koch brothers pay for it to exist. It's not a hard sell, given that the people targeted are already distrustful of scientists, the UN and other government organizations, "the liberal media," universities and empricism in general. Sociological research shows that often, trying to correct people's misinformation often leads to an even more entrenched belief in the misinformation--and it's super easy to politicize an issue when one party blatantly rejects reality in favor of fantasy, and ties it in to various tribal mentalities.
Evangelical Christians often reject climate science because they delusionally believe the world is going to end within their lifetimes anyway and it doesn't matter, or that the planet is somehow immune to humanity's influence because--who knows?--God's creation must be perfect and immune to damage. Responsibility to protect "God's creation"? Oh, hells naw.
Mainstream Republicans love to see monied interests in the green energy sector, which is only viable because of government investment--which they revile whenever public funds are spent on something that isn't one of their priorities. Mainstream Republicans *love* to fixate on Al Gore, and whatever money he's made for himself by investing in green energy, to the tune of about $100 million total dollars, claiming that any advocacy he does now is purely self-interest, while simultaneously ignoring the multi-trillion dollar a year oil industry, and its total special-interest dominance of our congress.
Fox and conservative radio virtually never report on IGCC, NASA, NOAA or EPA reports, addressing them only when unavoidable--with absolute skepticism, scientific denialism and sometimes outright conspiracy theories.
There's really no fixing the issue until the problem becomes so apparent to even the total layperson, that conservative efforts to hand-waive them away are seen for what they are (similar to what's now happening with income inequality). One can only hope that that point isn't where China has totally destroyed their own environment, and the planet continues to warm beyond our ability to repair.
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