In a truly amazing CNN interview with Miles O’Brien, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, was asked to respond to the statement by John McCain (R-AZ): “I believe climate change is real. I believe that we need to act as quickly as possible.” He replied:

But as far as John McCain’s concerned, he’s a good friend of mine. I’ve served with him. However, John McCain is running for president and this is a huge, popular issue. Seventy percent of the people have been duped by the media.

If the public has been duped by the media, then apparently Sen. McCain has too — unless we are to read Inhofe’s comments as saying that McCain knows he is wrong and is intentionally misleading the public merely to win votes from duped Americans. It is tough being a good friend of Sen. Inhofe.

[Yes, the headline could have been "Inhofe says Public has been Duped by the Media," but that didn't strike me as news.]

The entire interview is worth watching because CNN’s Miles O’Brien really did his homework and pushed back hard on Inhofe’s misrepresentations of the science. Amazingly, Inhofe seems to think he gets the best of this interview, since he has the tape on his web site.

British scientists have issued the harshest warning yet about the devastating impact of unrestrained greenhouse gas emissions: “One third of the planet will be desert by the year 2100.”

This stunning new UK research, from the Met Office’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, shows

[The] figure for moderate drought, currently at 25 per cent of the Earth’s surface, rising to 50 per cent by 2100, the figure for severe drought, currently at about 8 per cent, rising to 40 cent, and the figure for extreme drought, currently 3 per cent, rising to 30 per cent.

Within 100 years, some 30 percent of Earth will be rendered essentially uninhabitable, leading to mass migrations and millions of environmental refugees. And this result is based on a greenhouse gas emissions growth scenario that ignores key carbon cycle vicious cycles (such as the tundra melting). The Independent reports: “In one unpublished Met Office study, when the carbon cycle effects are included, future drought is even worse.”

The UK study shows that we are already seeing the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on drought: “In the last decade of the 20th century droughts were nearly 25% more widespread than in the previous 40 years.” Climate Progress has noted the undercoverage of the drought-climate link in the major US media, but the British media certainly gets it, as evidenced by the cover story in The Independent. That may be because there is less muzzling of scientists. The Met Office is actually within the UK’s Ministry of Defence.

If only our political leadership were as concerned with the security threat from global warming.