Capitol Hill candidates urging inaction on global warming

onAug 25, 2008 @ 12:42 PDT

“The science behind “global warming” doesn’t really explain why the past models haven’t been accurate, or why there are holes big enough to drive a Mack Truck through in the current models. There is currently no support for the contention that it’s caused by humans,” says Republican congressional candidate David Crowley.

And Crowley is joined by many other wanna-be politicians with their heads firmly planted in the sand when it comes to the realities of human-caused global warming.

The National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) has a project up and running for the Fall’s House of Representatives races asking candidates 5 questions on the environment including one on global warming.

Here’s a few of the responses they have received so far:

CA-33 David Crowley: “The science behind “global warming” doesn’t really explain why the past models haven’t been accurate, or why there are holes big enough to drive a Mack Truck through in the current models. There is currently no support for the contention that it’s caused by humans. This could be just part of the normal cycle of our planet. Until the truth is ascertained, it would be unwise to choose any course of action outside of normal conservation.”

CA-53 Edward Teyssier: “That human activity is a significant cause of global warming has been soundly rebuked by qualified scientists using sound methodologies. While the earth has undergone numerous cycles of warming and cooling trends there is no indication that human activities, either now or in the past, had a significant effect on these trends.”

ID-Senate Pro-Life (that’s really his name): “I am an organic farmer. I am an enviromentalist by nature. I do not, however, believe in global warming caused by pollution. We need to stop pollution for other reasons.”

KS-04 Steven Arthur Rosile: “Evidence developed since 2001 shows that this issue is essentially over. According to David Evans, Australia’s chief scientist on climate from 1999 to 2005, there is no observable heat signature in the atmosphere to show that greenhouse gases are responsible for trapping heat and satellite data show Earth’s temperature stabilized in 2001 and actually dropped 0.6C in 2007. That is 85% of the 0.7C increase recorded over the previous 100 years.” Google David Evans climate change.”

MO-06 Dave Browning: “At this point I do not believe that the scientific evidence supports the position that global warming if the same exists, is not a function of sun activity rather than human activity. No study I have been made aware of uses mandlebrot mathematics (chaos math) to do its projections. It is a fact that the mathematics of climateology requires the use of chaos mathematics to describe it as it is a chaotic system. The use of liner models is just BUNK.”

MO-07 Kevin Craig: “I haven’t seen any evidence of “severe impacts” during the “Medieval Warm Period.” Global warming following the “Little Ice Age” couldn’t have been caused by human industrialism. Cutting energy consumption by 20-80% will result in the deaths of hundreds of millions of people without noticeable decline in global warming. Any policy proposal must answer: what are the costs; what are the assured benefits. http://KevinCraig.us/greenhouse.htm” C2%B2>

NC-02 Willis Adkins: “The global warming scare has been popularized to benefit big-government politicians, environmentalists, and researchers whose funding is contingent upon endorsing it. Credible scientists do not attribute this as being man-made; even proponents admit that warming stopped nearly a decade ago. While we should all be good stewards of the environment, I don’t support crippling our economy and sending manufacturing jobs overseas where CO2 caps will be ignored simply to promote politcal agendas.”

NJ-02 Peter Boyce: “Scientists warn?” Go to www.oism.org/pproject/pproject.htm#36 where 31,000 American scientists signed a petition: “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing,in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects …”

OR-3 Delia Lopez: “If you look at history you see variations in temperature, from ice ages to times when it has been much warmer than now. The corelation between CO2 and warming has been disproven. Th esun is responsible for most warming. Between 1940 and 1980 when CO2 levels were rising, temperatures were falling. Temperatures have been falling again for 6 years, some scientists are warning of an ice age, again! That was the big fear when I was in school. Then came the hole in the ozone layer.”

OR-5 Douglass Patterson: “I believe there is a global climate change taking place, which appears to be cyclical every 50-100 years. I doubt very seriously that there is such a thing as the so-called “global warming” event taking place.”

SC-05 Frank Waggoner: “Not all scientist agree with that premise, at least 36,000. We cannot predict what the water vapor levels in the atmosphere going to be ten days from let alone 10 or 12 years. Environmental problems can be better solve through monetary and fiscal policy reform so that manufacturing does not have to depend on large economies of scale and mass production to be competitive.That is a better solution to new and global taxes. I feel that the evironmental movement is more about politics than clean air.”

Luckily, with the exception of two Republican candidates, those who responded with the typical climate denial talking points represent fringe parties and have very little chance of ever being elected.

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.