Inhofe's gone dumb for the last time
The outgoing head of the Senate's committee on the environment, Oklahoma Sen. James M. Inhofe (R) does not believe in climate change. I use the word "believe" because he generally relies on things that are not "science" to inform his opinions on the matter. For example, an excerpt from a press release dated January, 2005 in which he decries the stifling of critics such as...author and MD Michael Crichton who, I should note, is not a climate scientist:
Dr. Crichton states that, "Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be a natural phenomenon," and, "Nobody knows how much of the present trend might be man-made." And for those who see impending disaster in the coming century, Dr. Crichton urges calm: "I suspect that people of 2100 will be much richer than we are, consume more energy, have a smaller global population, and enjoy more wilderness than we have today. I don't think we have to worry about them."No, nobody knows anything about man's influence on climate...except for thousands of highly trained, highly educated, highly vindictive scientists with their individual axes to grind. But woe be it for me to illuminate the absurdity of Inhofe's steez. I think I should leave it to them gully bols over at realclimate.org, where some of the world's pre-eminent climate scientists blog about stuff like small, inhabited islands getting swallowed by the sea...and science. Good thing Inhofe done peaced, before he starts trying to deregulate the dinosaur theme park industry (no Jeff Goldblum).
A quick read of Inhofe's statements scattered across the internet, makes it clear that his understanding of climate science is much like Alaska Senator Ted Stevens description of the internet as a "series of tubes," despite being the de facto regulator/watchdog of the internet. Inhofe- who is a senator, remember-likes to express his astonishment about how climate scientists are saying that the sun (the sun!) is responsible for global warming, thus proving their claims demonstrably false. Of course the sun is warming the earth, it always has been, it's just that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses are trapping the heat (no Young Jeezy). Oh. OK.
I'm not even going to touch Inhofe's classic invocation of "God's still up there," as a coverall alibi for not giving a fuck. (Video here) There's probably hope for Inhofe, but not the kind of hope that is good for the rest of us. Gale Norton, the former Bush Interior Secretary who eased enforcement and restriction on oil and gas drilling and exploration on public land during her tenure, she's now an advisor for Royal Dutch Shell, one of the world's largest oil companies. I can think of a place where Inhofe will fit in quite nicely...The
