Thread: Republican Senators Say Climate Change Is Real, ‘But It’s Not Our Fault’

Republican Senators Say Climate Change Is Real, ‘But It’s Not Our Fault’

By: John Lundin
Friday, January, 23rd, 2015, 9:46 am

Sounding like kids on a playground, Republican Senators on Wednesday admitted something bad has happened, but “we didn’t do it!”

The U.S. Senate voted 98-1 to approve a resolution stating “it is the sense of the Senate that climate change is real and not a hoax.” Then, about 15 minutes later, the Senate rejected a second resolution that said climate change is real and caused by humans.

The first resolution was approved – and co-sponsored – by one of the most outspoken climate deniers in the Senate, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), a man who literally wrote a book on how climate change is the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated.” The only Senator to vote against the resolution was Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS).

Senators agreeing that climate change is real? Well, not exactly. At the last minute, right before a vote was taken, Inhofe took the floor to state that he would be co-sponsoring and approving the amendment on the grounds that yes, climate change is real, but human-caused climate change is not. “Man cannot change climate,” Inhofe said. “The hoax is that there are some people that are so arrogant to think that they are so powerful that they can change climate.”

The resolution was originally put forth by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) as an amendment to the bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. It was widely seen as a way to corner Republicans – a way for Democrats to say “Fine, if you want to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, you have to go on record about whether you think global warming is real.”

Fortunately, the effort to get every Senator on the record about their stance on human-caused climate change was all for naught. Shortly after the vote on Whitehouse’s resolution, the Senate also took up an amendment from Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), which stated that climate change is real and that humans contribute to it. That amendment failed, however, following a short speechfrom Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) saying that the amendment’s inclusion of the word “significantly” — as in, humans “significantly” contribute to global warming — should warrant a “no” vote. Schatz’s amendment failed 50-49 (it needed 60 votes to pass), but it does mean that a slim majority of the U.S. Senate acknowledges that climate science is a real and valid thing.

Among the votes against Schatz’ amendment acknowledging that climate change is real were Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH). Republicans who voted to say that climate change is real and significantly caused by humans included Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Susan Collins (R-ME), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California), ranking Democrat on the Senate’s environmental panel, called the vote “a small victory, but an important one.” The Senate has gone on record to agree that climate change is real, but the governmental body is still split on its causes — other amendments introduced later in the day that attributed climate change to the actions of humans failed to receive the 60 votes required to pass, despite some Republican support. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who introduced one of the failed amendments, said the vote nonetheless meant there was “a softening of the attitude of the deniers,” and that they were “losing ground in the face of public opinion.”

Schatz said there was “an emerging bipartisan group of people who believe that climate change is real and caused by humans and solvable,” but many Republicans were staunch in their position that people have nothing to do with changing temperatures. Despite his vote, Senator Inhofe called supporters of the theory “arrogant” to believe humans were so powerful, stating that “man can’t change climate.” Others saw the amendments as unnecessary distractions designed to stymie the signing of the contentious Keystone XL bill. “If you’re using climate change as a reason not to build this pipeline,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said, “you’re kidding yourself or you’re misleading the public.”

All this foolishness about whether climate change is real and who is or is not to blame, was attached to a bill approving construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Should the bill — which would see the construction of a vast oil pipeline from Canada to the United States — pass congress, President Obama has promised to veto it.

Will a Presidential veto let the senate off the hook? Will they again be free to deny climate change? Stay tuned.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/01/...eal-fault.html

http://www.alipac.us/f19/top-ten-rea...8/#post1485161

Senate Votes 98-1 That Climate Change 'Is Not A Hoax'


United States senators are now on the record on the question of whether climate change is "a hoax." But a majority of the Senate, including 15 Republicans, are also on record stating that human activity contributes to climate change.


The Senate on Wednesday passed a measure stating that "climate change is real and is not a hoax" by a margin of 98-1.


The Senate also voted down two amendments to the bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline stating that human activity contributes to climate change. (Each amendment needed 60 votes to pass.)


The first amendment, which failed 59-40, was introduced by Sen John Hoeven (R-ND), and states: "Climate change is real; and human activity contributes to climate change." It also agrees with the State Department study which "suggest that significant impacts to most resources are not expected along the proposed Project route" for the Keystone pipeline.


The second amendment, which failed 50-49, went one step further and stated "climate change is real (and) human activity significantly contributes to climate change." The inclusion of "significantly," as well as the exclusion of the language reaffirming that the Keystone XL pipeline will not have a significant impact on the proposed route resulted in only five Republicans supporting it, instead of the 15 that supported the Hoeven amendment.


The "hoax" language, attached to a bill to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline, was a resolution introduced by Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.


The amendment was expected to fail, but Republicans parsed the words of the amendment, arguing they could vote for it but at the same time believe that climate change was not man-made.


The lone no vote was from Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi.


The amendment was designed in part as a jab at GOP Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, who has questioned the science of climate change.


Inhofe voted for the measure, arguing that the true "hoax" is that climate change is the result of human activity.


"Climate is changing, and climate has always changed, and always will, there's archeological evidence of that, there's biblical evidence of that, there's historic evidence of that, it will always change," he said on the Senate floor. "The hoax is that there are some people that are so arrogant to think that they are so powerful that they can change climate. Man can't change climate."


Democrats, newly in the minority in the upper chamber, are split on whether the Keystone XL pipeline should be built, but they are using the ongoing debate in the Senate to push votes on largely symbolic amendments to the bill.


http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/cong...t-hoax-n290831

http://www.alipac.us/f19/climate-cha...on-day-326709/

Koch Industries: SecretlyFunding the Climate Denial Machine

Charles and David Koch have quietly funneled over $61 million to climate-denial front groups that are working to delay policies and regulations aimed at ...

There’s a lot of faith going around this holiday season, some of it misplaced. Faith in long term, global climate catastrophe is one faith that is inappropriate.

The complexity of the earth’s climate is incredible. Forecasting the future of such climate in meaningful detail is incredibly challenging. And the level of training, depth of knowledge, and development of intuition to successfully even begin to achieve a semi-reliable long-range climate outlook is quite impressive.

Understandably, the vast majority of the public has to basically trust what climate scientists tell them about the future of this planet’s atmospheric conditions. Yet, that trust should be tempered with at least a modicum of incredulity, especially by contemplative adults. After all, as the highly respected atmospheric scientist, Reid Bryson, once noted: Making a forecast is easy. Being right is the hard part. (h/t Patrick Michaels & Paul Knappenberger)

Thinking adults should know better than to simply trust even really smart scientists when it comes to what these scientists “confidently know” about earth’s climate in the far distant decades. Even really smart science sages cannot know the long term state of the global climate, other than within a wide range of temperature and precipitation levels (a range too wide to be of much practical value).

That doesn’t stop arrogant “experts” and their shallow science sycophants, like leftist environmentalists, from mouthing misrepresentations that have become soundbite science: “97% of scientists agree…,” “deniers are paid off…,” “hurricane intensity has increased..,” “weather is becoming more extreme…,” ad nauseam.

So, in the new year, resolve to put your faith into something truly trustworthy, like the fact that high priests of planetary doom preach half-truths at best.





http://www.alipac.us/f19/o-come-all-ye-faithful-environmentalists-326713/

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Chris Christie talks about global warming, immigration and Hillary Clinton


. . . "The New Jersey governor took a strong stand on climate change that sets him apart from the other Republicans running or thinking of running for president. He said, "I think global warming is real. I don't think that's deniable. And I do think human activity contributes to it." . . .

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