Senate committee chairs are powerful people in the scheme of American government. They can block or steer bills to passage, and provide a media platform. So it is more than disconcerting the first thing Senator Jame Inhofe (R-OK) did upon taking control of the Environment & Public Works Committee is deny climate change from the Senate floor, again. According to his narrow-minded view, climate change was practically invented by Al Gore, one of the extreme right's favorite targets of ridicule.
In reality the idea was conceived about 200 years ago when the industrial revolution began pouring carbon pollution into the atmosphere. French scientist Jean Baptist Fourier described how the atmosphere contributes to planetary temperature by trapping infra-red radiation reflected from the Earth's surface in the 1820s. He was not aware of the role CO₂ played in the planetary mechanism he described. John Tyndall made the important discovery that water vapor and carbon dioxide trapped heat forty years later. It was not until the end of the 19th century that Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius performed calculations to describe the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperatures. He found that if the amount of carbon dioxide was doubled, global temperatures would increase by 5-6℃ If you think this international history of scientific discovery is testament to a conspiracy of anti-capitalists, then you need to send a fan letter to James Inhofe. He must hold the current world record for cognitive dissonance. Becuase 97% of peer-reviewed scientific studies that stated a position on the cause of global warming say it is caused by humans combusting fossil fuels.
Of course those of us who are not paid to deny by fossil fuel industries understand why Inhofe talks the talk and walks the walk. He is, in essence, an oil industry hack. He is only interested in presenting industry propaganda, not the truth because the truth is already out there for the public to see for themselves. That Inhofe is also a United States Senator and a committee chairman is this nation's and the world's great misfortune.