Bernie Sanders SLAMS House Committee For Pushing Climate Change Denial (TWEETS)

By
Darrell Lucus
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Bernie Sanders on the stump for Hillary Clinton (image courtesy Tim Pierce, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)
Bernie Sanders on the stump for Hillary Clinton (image courtesy Tim Pierce, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)

As we all know, when Republicans hold the levers of power on Capitol Hill, you can expect to see a lot of sheer lunacy masquerading as policy and debate. A classic case of this came when the Republicans on the House Science Committee saw fit to effectively give its sanction to climate change denial.

Late Thursday afternoon, committee chairman Lamar Smith and his fellow Republicans saw fit to blast this out on the committee’s Twitter feed.

The link goes to an article from Breitbart–or rather, Trumpbart–that claims a one-degree drop in land temperatures proves the lie to overwhelming evidence that this is the planet’s hottest year on record. What Trumpbart doesn’t tell you is that the oceans have absorbed much of that warmth. Apparently those facts aren’t enough for committee chairman Lamar Smith, who is notorious for drinking the climate change denial Kool-Aid by the barrelful.

It turns out that you can add another item to the long list of sins from Trumpbart. Under Steve Bannon’s watch, Trumpbart has been one of the loudest promoters of climate change denial. Its main climate change skeptic, James Delingpole, wrote the piece that was so loudly trumpeted by Smith. Delingpole openly admits he isn’t a scientist, but thinks he can legitimately chide them. Back in 2013, he harrumphed that climate scientists were “talentless low-lives” and “abject liars.” Before then, he had suggested that the arguments for climate change are so ridiculous that death is too good for climate scientists.

When Bernie Sanders saw this roll across his phone, he let Smith and friends have it.

You’ll have to pardon Sanders and his social media team for sounding so incredulous. After all, Sanders was on hand when Jim Inhofe peddled similar nonsense in 2015–and got torn apart by Sheldon Whitehouse. As Whitehouse pointed out, the only people who give climate change denial any credence at all are “conspiracy theorists,” people who aren’t willing to accept “scientific truths,” and people with financial ties to oil and gas interests. Unfortunately, we got the message loud and clear today that those elements are now charged with oversight of our environmental policy.

Ranking Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson and the other Dems on the Science Committee gave their Republican counterparts a cold dose of facts.

One of the committee’s Democrats, Don Beyer of Virginia, was so dumbfounded that he felt the need to weigh in with a tweet of his own.

Beyer also trolled the GOP when he announced he had just sent out his latest newsletter on climate change.

Several actual scientists also joined in on the smackdown. First up, Peter Gleick of the National Academy of Sciences.

Katharine Hayhoe of the Texas Tech Climate Science Center launched a tweetstorm against this ridiculous article.

There’s a reason that Gleick and Hayhoe were so dumbfounded. As we all know, sea levels are rising as the icecaps melt, putting major cities in danger. Seen in this light, this tweet from the Science Committee Republicans isn’t just wrong. It’s extremely dangerous.

Given the circumstances, it’s only fair to ask–are the Republicans on this committee okay with promoting this kind of hokum? Perhaps we should force them on the record. Here’s a list of the Republicans on the panel who are returning to Congress next year.

  • Lamar Smith, chairman (TX-21)
  • Frank Lucas, vice chairman (OK-03)
  • Jim Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin (WI-05)
  • Dana Rohrabacher, CA-48
  • Mike McCaul, TX-10
  • Mo Brooks, AL-05
  • Randy Hultgren, IL-14
  • Bill Posey, FL-08
  • Thomas Massie, KY-04
  • Jim Bridenstine, OK-01
  • Randy Weber, TX-14
  • Bill Johnson, OH-06
  • John Moolenaar, MI-04
  • Steve Knight, CA-25
  • Brian Babin, TX-36
  • Bruce Westerman, AR-04
  • Barbara Comstock, VA-10
  • Dan Newhouse, WA-04
  • Gary Palmer, AL-06
  • Barry Loudermilk, GA-11
  • Ralph Abraham, LA-05

If either of these Republicans represent you, pester them on Facebook, on Twitter, and on email–politely, of course. If they are okay with giving climate change denial a stamp of approval, the American people deserve to know.

Darrell Lucus
Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.

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