Young Earth creationism, scientists portrayed as part of an anti-Christian conspiracy, environmentalists viewed with extreme suspicion. Growing up as an evangelical within the world of the US Christian Right, and attending Christian schools, I know first-hand how extreme they are, and how aggressive in their defence of “alternative facts”.
Understanding this is important while COP26 (the twenty-sixth annual Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) is under way in Glasgow. Because the Republicans who just won off-year elections (which bodes ill for the midterm congressional elections in 2022), along with ex-president Donald Trump, represent the culmination of a decades-long process of radicalisation in their party driven by the thoroughly authoritarian Christian Right.
