A lively exchange last night between environmentalist Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and leading climate change denier Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), culminating in Inhofe’s claim that recently leaked emails from climate scientists prove what he’s said all along: that global warming is a myth.
“Now we see that that science has been pretty well debunked,” Inhofe told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
And not only that, said the Oklahoma Republican, but the “Climategate” scandal also undermines (1) the EPA’s findingthat greenhouse emissions are a public-health hazard, and (2) the need for Congress to pass a climate change bill. “„You can’t play this one down. This is a huge, huge deal. The fact that they are going into an endangerment finding using this as that science, that makes it that much worse. It’s a recognition that we have won and they have lost in terms of a legislative cure for this.
“„Your bill is dead. It’s not going to go anywhere. The [Barbara] Boxer bill is dead and for that reason, in order to save face at the big meeting that’s watching this right now in Copenhagen they had to come up with an endangerment finding.
Markey had other ideas, pointing out the broad scientific consensus that human behavior is affecting global temperatures.
“„The National Academy of Sciences of every country in the world has endorsed these findings. It’s not just the United States. It’s not just the British. It’s every country in the world.
Still, Inhofe is right on at least one count: Climate change legislation in Congress is going nowhere fast.