Sen. Marco Rubio on climate change: "I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it."
A continuing series on what folks in the public sphere
have said about climate change in recent days.
When climate chatter occurs amid presidential chatter.
The science community continues to weigh in on climate change. The latest, from the U.S. Global Change Research Program, comes in the form of the nation's Third National Climate Assessment, an in-depth study.
Among its conclusions:
Many lines of independent evidence demonstrate that the rapid warming of the past half-century is due primarily to human activities.
-- National Climate Assessment, Overview
A team of more than 300 experts guided by a 60-member Federal Advisory Committee produced the report, which was extensively reviewed by the public and experts, including federal agencies and a panel of the National Academy of Sciences.
But one senator has apparently studied up on the climate and has come to another conclusion.
Our climate is always changing. And what they have chosen to do is take a handful of decades of research and say that this is now evidence of a longer-term trend that's directly and almost solely attributable to man-made activities. I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it.
-- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)on ABC This Week, May 11, 2014
Interesting, especially given this quote from the very same senator:
"I'm not a scientist, man. … I'm not a scientist. I don't think I'm qualified to answer a [scientific] question like that.
-- Sen. Rubio in response to a questionabout the age of the Earth posed by
GQ magazine, November 2012
Why would a senator and self-identified eschewer of scientific expertise make such a definitive statement about climate? Well, perhaps his apparent interest in seeking the GOP nomination for president in 2016 has something to do with it. Apparently you don't need to be a climate scientist to know which way the political winds blow.
Others in the Series
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 1
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 2
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 3
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 4
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 5
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 6
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 7
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 8
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 9
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 10
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 11
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 12
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 13
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 14
• Climate Change Chatter, Issue 15