Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) has responded angrily to yesterday’s CNN segment debunking his diatribe against global warming science. His rebuttal is shockingly dishonest. Here’s a sample:
[CNN’s Miles] O’Brien also claimed that the “Hockey Stick” temperature graph was supported by most climate scientists despite the fact that the National Academy of Sciences and many independent experts have made it clear that the Hockey Stick’s claim that the 1990’s was the hottest decade of the last 1000 years was unsupportable.
Actually, that National Academy of Sciences just released a study supporting the so-called “Hockey Stick” study (by Mann et. al). Here’s an excerpt from the report:
The basic conclusion of Mann et al. (1998, 1999) was that the late 20th century warmth in the Northern Hemisphere was unprecedented during at least the last 1,000 years. This conclusion has subsequently been supported by an array of evidence…Based on the analyses presented in the original papers by Mann et al. and this newer supporting evidence, the committee finds it plausible that the Northern Hemisphere was warmer during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period over the preceding millennium. [pg. 3–4]
The National Academy of Sciences did note that “less confidence” can be placed in the conclusion that “the 1990s are likely the warmest decade” because “not all of the available proxies record temperature information on such short timescales.” This is a scientific reality. But, unmistakably, the NAS study bolsters the “hockey stick” and, more importantly, the fact that global warming is real and caused by human activity.
Inhofe protested that, contrary to O’Brien’s report, he did agree to be interviewed by CNN about his global warming claims. What he didn’t mention was that he agreed to be interviewed by right-wing CNN host Glenn Beck, who said of An Inconvenient Truth, “It’s like Hitler. Hitler said a little bit of truth, and then he mixed in ‘and it’s the Jews’ fault.’”