02 March 2015

U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe tosses a snowball


The travesty is detailed at ABC News:
Sen. Jim Inhofe, a devoted climate change denier, tossed a snowball at someone on the Senate floor today as he tried to debunk climate change. 

“In case we had forgotten because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair: You know what this is? It's a snowball and that just from outside here so it's very, very cold out. Very unseasonal,” he said. 

“So, Mr. President, catch this,” Inhofe, R-Okla., said on the Senate floor, tossing the snowball to someone off-screen as he tried to suppress a smile. 

We hear the perpetual headline that 2014 has been the warmest year on record but now the script has flipped and I think it's important since we hear it over and over and over,” Inhofe, 80, said. “As we can see with the snowball out there, this is today. This is reality.” 
That degree of ignorance in a person who helps make the laws for this country is virtually incomprehensible to me.  I can't even comment without resorting to offensive expletives.

8 comments:

  1. I think its fair to say that hyperbole is going on from both sides of this issues..

    “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” Dr. David Viner, a scientist with the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia, told the UK Independent in 2000. (http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html)

    Skiing will not be a sport in the UK for mort than 10 more years (said in 2004) (http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/feb/14/climatechange.scotland)

    "“Some of the models suggest that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during some of the summer months, could be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years,” -- Al Gore 2008 (http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/16/global-warming-satellite-data-shows-arctic-sea-ice-coverage-up-50-percent/)

    Union of Concerned Scientists predict the end of spring snowfall -- March 2013 (http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/warmer-springs-snow-plants-animals-allergies-0370.html)

    Imment demise of skiing as a sport in the US (March 2014) http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/02/14/snowfall-no-longer-a-sure-bet-booming-ski-towns-fight-going-bust

    Lots of hyperbole on both sides.

    And as an aside: I am a believer that we have seen warmer temperatures over at least the last 150 years. I've looked at the data and seen the evidence. You can go to the Icefields glacier in Canada and look at the historical descriptions and maps of the glacier extent, and trace how it has retreated for that period, among other evidence.

    What I object to is the hyperbole from both sides. A pox on both their houses!



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    1. Ending up in the lower end of a difficult prediction (Al Gore's 25% was part of his prediction) is something else than purposely conflating seasons with climate.

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  2. It isn't equal hyperbole on both sides. It's a very one-sided issue: facts and reality versus disrespect for authority figures (scientists and teachers).

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  3. By personal observation, I find a large overlap between things like tobacco denial and climate denial.
    People who believe the world is what they want, instead of what it is.

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  4. Why should Inhofe give a monkey's ass about the climate? He's 80 years old and won't be around to worry about what happens. Meanwhile he gets to stick it to all those who see him for what he's always been: a whore for the fossil fuel industry. And you can't really shame a whore, can you?

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  5. Idiot. Five letters, not four. Same diff,

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  6. Republicans have been playing some version of this stunt for a couple of years now. For some reason, you never do see them come out of their AC offices and vehicles long enough to sweat when it hits three digits for multiple days at a time...

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