Abe Lincoln put it this way:
“Better to remain silent and be
thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
How wonderfully Abe’s words apply to
that marvel of Senatorial sagacity, James M. Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican
Surely you remember Mr. Inhofe?
He’s the Senate’s star climate change doubter and oil
industry robot who claims climate change is a hoax. He calls climate scientists
“conspirators.”
Mr.
Inhofe’s latest stunner came following the tragic tornado in Moore, a suburban town in the Senator’s home state.
Because the Senator had orated against
spending $50 billion in emergency funding for victims of Hurricane sandy, reporters
asked if he would back such funding for Oklahoma’s victims. He said he would
because:
“That [Sandy relief
spending] was totally different…. Everybody was getting in and exploiting the
tragedy that took place. That won’t
happen in Oklahoma.”
In other words, Oklahomans are more
virtuous than New Yorkers, New Jerseyites, and other East Coast victims.
That aside, Inhofe at least condescended to help the
victims. The other Oklahoma Senator, Republican Tom Coburn, opposed emergency relief unless the
expenditure was offset by cuts in other federal spending.
There seems to be total denial among
climate change deniers that emergency funding is likely to become even more
common than it is. Not because of rip offs—though rip offs there may be—but because
the rise in global temperatures warms the seas and generates more vicious
storms.
Of course, regardless of scientific
studies and observable facts, Senator Inhofe and his ilk will remain
unconvinced. As Benjamin Franklin observed, “A man convinced against his will
is of the same opinion still.”
Even so, there is more and more reason to be convinced.
Reporting on a recent report in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, USA Today’s Doyle Rice wrote:
“Global warming has already doubled
the chance of storms like Katrina, according to the study, which was led by
climate scientist Aslak Grinstsed of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.”
The cheering news is that the number
of climate change disbelievers has dwindled. The Yale Project on Climate Change
Communication reports that between 2010 and 2012 the number of doubters dropped
from 16 percent of the American population to 8 percent. At the same time the
number of Americans ”alarmed” by climate change has climbed ten percent.
Overall 63 percent of Americans
believe in climate change and its effects, and the Yalies report that those who
believe in global warming, “are more certain of their convictions than those
who do not.”
It’s not clear that Senator Inhofe was counted among
those less certain “deniers.” Probably not. And given his coziness with Big Oil, he’s unlikely to waver
especially since, as Yale studies indicate:
“Half or more [of climate change believers] favor
the elimination of subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, and oppose the
elimination of subsidies to renewable energy companies.”
As many see it, only a fool would
oppose subsidizing renewable energy companies given the facts about the rise of
carbon dioxide caused by fossil fuel and the damage it causes.
But as you may already know, Senator Inhofe has championed
opposition to renewable energy company
subsidies while fighting for continues subsidies to oil companies.
----Gus Gribbin
>
Doyle
Rice’s USA Today article appeared on March 18, 2013.
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