Reprinted from To The Point Analyses
Part I -- Reality
On 17 January 2015 the New York Times reported on a scientific study that showed 2014 to be "the hottest on earth since record-keeping began in 1880." The report went on to explain that "records were set across large areas of every inhabited continent." Particularly hard hit in 2014 was the western portion of the United States: Alaska, Arizona, California and Nevada all experienced "extreme warmth." Temperatures in parts of California "sometimes [ran] 10 to 15 degrees above normal for the season."
The vast majority of climatologists believe that this warming will go on for a very long time and that it presents "profound long-term risks to civilization and nature." Also, most scientists agree, global warming is caused by human activity such as the burning of fossil fuels. According to Michael E. Mann, a climatologist at Penn State University, "it is exceptionally unlikely that we would be witnessing a record year of warmth, during a record-warm decade, during a several decades-long period of warmth that appears to be unrivaled for more than a thousand years, were it not for the rising levels of planet-warming gases produced by the burning of fossil fuels." This consensus has led the scientific community to the conclusion that "climate change is perhaps the major challenge of our generation."
Part II -- Republican Theology
Well, that is the judgement of scientists who investigate matters of fact in the most objective way they know. Unfortunately, only a small number of them become convincing public spokespeople for their positions, and fewer still leave their day jobs to become politicians. Meanwhile, when it comes to global warming, the investigative talents of the latest crop of Republican congressional leaders is anything but objective. Of course, that does not stop many of them from loudly voicing their opinions -- opinions now coupled to the wielding of power. Consider the following short list:
Representative Paul Broun of Georgia, a member of the House Science Committee, has recently declared "All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and big bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. And it's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior." As for human contributions to global warming, Broun considers it a hoax" perpetrated by the scientific community.
Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma is now chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Inhofe has written a book entitled The Greatest Hoax, which presents climate change and global warming as a conspiracy of atheists and scientists who would deny the supremacy of Inhofe's version of God. He is upset at the "arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate." Inhofe's starting point for the congressional debate on climate change is "God is still up there" and in charge.
Roger Wicker of Mississippi is the ranking member of the New Economy subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Wicker insists that climate change is just a disputed hypothesis and not the threat the vast majority of scientists present it as. He suspects the scientific position is part of a "war on coal" -- that is, an effort to repudiate the use of fossil fuel.
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