The House GOP’s leader, John Boehner (R-OH), took some time over the weekend to wallow a bit in ignorance and dishonesty:
STEPHANOPOULOS: So what is the responsible way? That’s my question. What is the Republican plan to deal with carbon emissions, which every major scientific organization has said is contributing to climate change?
BOEHNER: George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide.
Joe Romm observes that Boehner doesn’t even seem to know what the climate change debate is about. But suffice it to say that it’s not about carbon dioxide being a carcinogen. It’s about the fact that carbon dioxide, in high levels, contributes to the destabilization of the planet’s climate.
On the subject of cow farts, Boehner’s a bit confused in that the issue is methane rather than CO2. But methane really is a contributor to climate change. The fact that this is a bit funny doesn’t change the fact that climate change is a real problem and that bovine flatulence genuinely contributes to it, albeit not on the same scale as industrial activity.
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