US Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) |
US Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) returns as chairman of the US Senate Environmental Committee for the 114th Congress. A vocal opponent of climate alarmism, the senior statesman, entering his eighth decade of life and third decade in Congress, outlined the unsettled science around global warming, or “climate change”. Leftist blog Think Progress mocked the newly-installed chairman for purportedly continuing to deny the obvious.
In light of what Chairman Inhofe recently accomplished, left-leaning global warming militants may rethink their snide attacks against serious policymakers, who dispute the seriousness of slightly increasing temperatures in limited cases around the word. Last week, during the Senate Amendment process for Senate Bill One, authorization of the Keystone Pipeline, Inhofe the “climate change denier” joined with polar opposite US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to cosponsor Amendment 29, which read as follows:
To express the sense
of the Senate that climate change is real and not a hoax.
Did the conservative Republican from Oklahoma finally buckle
under the heat and drink the climate change koolaid? Not at all. In what NewsMax
described as “Sen.
Jim Inhofe Outfoxes Dems on Climate Change in Keystone Vote”, the Senator slyly removed the language from the
amendment which identified climate change as a dangerous phenomenon created by
man, and therefore they would have to do something about it.Inhofe issued the following tweet on his co-sponsorship:
Senators - join me in
voting YES on Whitehouse's amdmnt saying climate change is a hoax, bc it is.
I'll address my vote in floor speech soon.
So, the amendment actually affirms that climate change is a
hoax? What’s going on, Senator?
Mr. President: The
climate is changing. The climate has always changed, and will always be. There
is archeological evidence of that. There’s Biblical evidence of that. There’s
historic evidence of that. It will always change. The hoax is that there are
some people who are so arrogant to think that they are so powerful, that they
can change climate. I ask for my colleagues to vote for the Whitehouse-Inhofe
amendment.
Inhofe explains why climate change is a hoax |
The Senate approved the Amendment, 98-1. Roger Wicker (R-MS)
voted “Nay”, and Senator Reid was “necessarily absent” following a brutal slip
and fall while jogging on the icy, cold Nevada streets.
After the vote, Inhofe took further efforts to explain his cosponsorship
and vote. First, he denounced Cap-and-Trade, dressed up as a carbon tax to
protect the environment, but in reality a Wall Street scam which will enrich
the few at the expense of the many, while creating more pollution. He then cited
the Wharton School, which denounced the carbon-reduction program, having
figured that such a tax would cost the average American family $3,000 a year
more in taxes.
He slammed the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change. He listed the numbers of scientists who called him to challenge
global warming, or climate alarmism, including Richard
Lindzen of MIT. He provided charts documenting long periods of fluctuation
in the global climate. Where Inhofe presented facts, Whitehouse delivers
rhetoric: “Time to Wake Up!” Zzzzz.
By the way, recent research confirms that conservatives are
smarter in general, and more scientifically researched/well-read than their
illiberal counterparts. Inhofe radiantly provided this point.
Inhofe addressed prior administrators (President Clinton,
Vice President AL Gore), then referenced to the same medium, Time Magazine, followed by the weekly
magazine’s frequent shift of position on climatic, climactic cataclysms: “The
World is Freezing!” followed thirty years later by “The World is Warming Up!” From
the science, to the scientific consensus, to opinions of local climatologists
(including weather forecasters), Inhofe outlined the startling lack of
agreement on the subject of climate change, and particularly whether the United
States should care about it, or pass laws to control it.
US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) |
Now, the fact that Inhofe faced the liberal Whitehouse’s argument head on is commendable. Analyzing this political power play further, Republicans in Congress, and conservatives in general, can adopt and expand their game to other issues. Consider the following: Why are we talking about climate change instead of global warming? The hazy language of the Left has permitted climate change alarmists to push their reasoned opponents into a corner. Anyone who says “I don’t believe in climate change” is evidently wrong, precisely because the climate is changing. Yet liberal politicians looking to enshrine the bureaucratic dream of carbon control have subverted the terms to refer to catastrophic global distortions.
Like Inhofe, conservatives can subvert Leftist rhetoric,
restore the words’ proper meaning, and deflate the entire argument. “Of course
I believe in climate change. Why
are you worried about it?” Carry this political logic to abortion. “I
support a woman’s right to choose, and many of them choose to support
reasonable restrictions on abortion.” What about gun control? “I support gun
control. Let’s keep them out of the criminals’ hands!” Equal pay for equal
work? Duh!
While Whitehouse pretended to have gained
the upper hand, Republican
Senate staffers mocked the Democrats for wasting the chamber’s time. The
political climate is changing on climate change, and savvy Senate conservatives
like Inhofe are winning.
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