Alaska's Sen. Ted Stevens: It's sunspots! Let's get out the oil drills

onDec 4, 2007 @ 12:37 PST

At a meeting of the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Alaska’s Senator Ted Stevens claimed that the unprecedented decline in Arctic sea ice melting is probably due to sunspots.

Of course, if a major plank in your political platform is the opening up of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, you probably would be inclined to grasp at anything to discredit the human-induced theory of global warming as well.

Senator John Kerry jumped all over Stevens junk science stating that:

There were people who argued against Christopher Columbus, who said that the world is flat despite the weight of scientific evidence. The fact is that the sunspot theory has been thoroughly disproved…”

And the response Stevens provides after getting ripped for his discredited sunspot claims?

Global cooling in the 1970’s.

Sigh.

The hearing is still underway, but here’s where you can find the archived webcast later today.

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.