Pat Toomey, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, agrees with Christine O’Donnell about global warming. Like O’Donnell and the rest of the GOP Senate candidates, Toomey questions the overwhelming scientific evidence that manmade pollution from burning billions of tons of oil and coal is warming the planet. “There is much debate in the scientific community as to the precise sources of global warming,” Toomey claimed in June, even though the National Academies of Science have explained that the “compelling case that climate change is occurring and is caused in large part by human activities is based on a strong, credible body of evidence.” Responding to a caller on WITF radio on Friday, Toomey expanded on his ignorance of scientific reality:
My view is: I think the data is pretty clear. There has been an increase in the surface temperature of the planet over the course of the last 100 years or so. I think it’s clear that that has happened. The extent to which that has been caused by human activity I think is not as clear. I think that is still very much disputed and has been debated.
Listen here:
“I just can’t see the argument for doing great economic damage, costing tens of thousands of jobs here in Pennsylvania, for a very uncertain gain, if any,” Toomey concluded, attacking policy to limit greenhouse pollution. Toomey’s top contributors include coal giant Murray Energy ($16,655) and Koch Industries ($15,000).
Update:
The Plum Line’s Greg Sargent opines:
Yet because O’Donnell and Angle have the crazy bar so high in so many other, more attention-grabbing ways, this sort of stuff from the relatively buttoned up Toomey passes unnoticed.