By Robin Bayes. Photo Credit: John Englart On July 4, 2025, American climate policy was upended as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) rolled back or canceled many clean energy tax incentives in the United States. Supporters touted this move while opponents lambasted it, each side claiming the moral high ground. While Republican House Budget Committee members argued that the OBBBA stops climate activism as a weapon to harm working families , the Committee’s Democratic caucus argued that it betrays the middle class by killing clean energy jobs and investments. When political messaging uses this kind of harm-based moral rhetoric to escalate the climate policy debate, there may be lasting consequences. Moralizing science and technology is associated with divisive characteristics In a recent short article published in Public Understanding of Science , I examine how moralization affects the way everyday people approach policy debates about science and technology....
Science and society | Communication