Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, appeared on Bloomberg TV Friday to refute the science of climate change. However, he admits to not even reading science reports but just the summaries, the Huffington Post reported.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released yet another report last week that warns of the dangers and effects of climate change. Despite the endless claims by notable scientific groups, Smith still refutes and claims the science as “biased.” Bloomberg host Cory Johnson questioned Smith.
“Congressman, it’s science. It’s 800 scientists,” said Johnson. “It’s not some random guy making a prediction.”
“There are a lot of scientists who disagree,” responded Smith. “For example, we’ve now had close to 18 years of no global warming even though carbon dioxide emissions have increased 25 percent over the last 18 years. Nobody can explain that.”
Smith, and every other Republican for that matter, seems to always ignore the fact that nearly the entire scientific community agrees that climate change is real, is caused by humans, and will have dire consequences. For Smith to claim that temperatures haven’t risen and gotten more extreme is ludicrous. Sea levels are rising and glaciers are melting.
The latest IPCC report stated that over half of the increased surface temperature from 1951 to 2010 was human caused. According to the House Science Chairman, “we don’t know enough yet to make decisions . . . Let’s continue to gather the facts.” Smith only means certain “facts” that fall in line with what his energy industry-controlled mind.
Smith admits that he “only read[s] summaries.” It’s not even that Smith is unable to be convinced, he actively refuses to be convinced. And as the House Science Chairman, he doesn’t seem concerned with science at all. According to the Huffington Post, the committee has discussed space aliens more than they have climate change.
Republicans have their interests in places other than the wellbeing of the world and environment; it’s their energy industry buddies they’re looking out for. They think climate science is designed to help those who they say want to control the economy and kill jobs. They need to step back, and think about that line of reasoning.
