As Earth Bakes, Blame Cowards Like McCain

Climate change legislation looks dead, and Paul Krugman knows what killed it. “It wasn’t the science, the scientists, or the economics,” he writes in the New York Times. It was “the usual suspects: greed and cowardice.” A carbon limitation would put at most a tiny dent in economic growth, but two industries would face negative impacts: oil and coal. Can you guess which industries are the biggest contributors to cap-and-trade’s most vociferous opponents?

But to kill the bill, those industries needed help from cowards like John McCain. McCain was once considered pretty green—he co-sponsored cap-and-trade legislation, something he touted during his presidential campaign. Now he’s opposed, “and it’s hard to see his switch as anything other than the act of a man willing to sacrifice his principles, and humanity’s future, for the sake of a few years added to his political career.” For more on 2010's record-high temperatures, click here.
(More John McCain stories.)