[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n public, GOP leaders are climate change deniers. In private, they understand climate change perfectly. The difference is that disclosure doesn’t serve the party’s purposes. Climate change denial — against the backdrop of accumulating science and fact — is like an electrical charge stimulating the Republican base. Here are the GOP’s ten commandments of climate change.

1) Climate change is like the weather: there is nothing we can do about it.

2) We are top predator. Others must adapt to us or die.

3) It doesn’t matter if climate change is man-made: whatever happens is God’s will.

4) Since our God in the only God, we know what is best for you.

5) As the party of limited government, any effort to strengthen environmental regulations is cutting our own throats.

6) As the party of capitalism, we are against any climate-driven protectionism unless it serves our interests.

7) If climate change requires subsidies, existing subsidies will be protected, first. Any additional subsidies will have to adapt to ours.

8) Dissenters on climate change are psychological deviants, to be dealt with and isolated from decision-making.

9) If there is a dispute on climate change between constituencies the GOP represents, the leadership will side with that person who concentrates our political power.

10) We will adapt our behavior to impacts of climate change as they happen, not before.

[box] Alan Farago is president of Friends of the Everglades and can be reached at afarago@bellsouth.net [/box]