Global Warming for Conservatives

Despite all the talk about rebranding the Republican Party, there hasn't been much talk about improving the actual product. There hasn't been much talk, for instance, about abandoning bad ideas.

One of the bad ideas the GOP needs to drop is science denialism, especially if it wants to represent itself as the organized political expression of American conservatism. We're going to talk about the GOP's denial of anthropogenic climate change.

The Denier Model

Whether they're denying AGW or evolution, science deniers rely on a distorted model about how science and scientists work. In this model, scientists are at best incompetent and at worst corrupt. In this model, someone who knows nothing about science is magically qualified to judge scientific work. In this model, science has never done anything for anybody.

Reality Drop: Crowdsourced Spam

Just to be clear, I want to see a more scientifically literate America. I want the conservative movement in general and the Republican party in particular to drop science denial as official policy. And I definitely want to see America lead the world in dealing with the threat of anthropogenic global warming. Because of those feelings, I have to applaud Reality Drop's goal of combating science denialism through better communication, but I can't commend their method.
Reality Drop

Reality Drop is a tool for commenting on news websites. It links stories about AGW in card-like units. Each story is marked as "Reality" or "Myth", and each one gives you a choice to "Destroy Denial" or "Spread Truth". In other words, for a "Reality" story, you can follow the link and post supporting information. For a "Myth" story, you can post corrective information.

So far, so good.