The GOP and the climate

I'm always a bit wary when I read stories about how the GOP is finally waking up to the climate crisis. To paraphrase a great statesman: fool me more than once, you can't get fooled again. Take this piece for instance:

While many conservative commentators and editorialists have mocked concerns about climate change, a different reality is emerging among Republican presidential contenders. It is a near-unanimous recognition among the leaders of the threat posed by global warming....

The debate has taken an intriguing twist. Two candidates appealing to religious conservatives, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, call for strong actions to ease the effects of people on the climate, at times casting the effort in spiritual terms just as some evangelical groups have taken up the cause.

Ok, fine. But just two years ago, when he was just as religious as he is now, Sam Brownback voted against John McCain's actual cap-and-trade bill--not a perfect piece of legislation, but a pretty good one--failing in his first real shot at actually doing something to address the problem. (So did Barbara Boxer, by the way, which is puzzling for reasons I will explain in a post later today or tomorrow.)

All to say that while I'm well aware that progress comes slowly, etc. etc. I don't think the biggest obstacle to global warming action is the fact that some Americans still believe that global warming isn't real. Those people are decidedly in the minority now (though, my guess is that they're pooled heavily in the redder corners of the country). Small steps are good, but these are too small to get exercised about.