We begin a new series on Sludgie today, where we examine in detail the careers of some of our most illustrious leaders in environmental craptitude. Today’s man of the hour is Senator James Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma - the state where the golden wheat can sure smell sweet and the hawk makes lazy circles in the sky. Strange that such an idyllic American west landscape could produce a man so thoroughly in contempt of it, but Inhofe doesn’t give a surrey with the fringe on top about our natural wonders.
Inhofe is most famous for boldly announcing on the Senate floor that global warming is “a hoax on the American public.” But that was back in July 2003, before all the overwhelming evidence became known by the general public. Here’s what he said just over a month ago on Fox News:
David Asman: Here’s Time Magazine. Be worried, be very worried. No doubt that there’s global warming. Catastrophic global warming. And no doubt that it’s manmade.
James Inhofe: It’s a hoax.
David Asman: A total hoax?
James Inhofe: A total hoax.
So, I guess he sticks by his guns. Of course, he’s just one deluded politician with an axe to grind. It’s not like he’s the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee or something. Wait… Damn you, Senate Republican majority!
Inhofe has used his leadership position, which he acquired in 2002 when the Dems lost majority of the Senate, to argue persistently for Congress to disregard the science of climate change. In 2005 he called Michael Crichton to testify before the Senate as an expert on climate science. Crichton wrote a novel that depicts environmentalists as nefarious villains bent on world destruction, which makes him an expert on climate science in Inhofe’s book. The star-fucking Republicans swarmed around Crichton for autographs (one senator began his remarks with, “I would like to thank Dr. Crichton for the endless hours of entertainment he has given me on Delta Airlines,”) while the actual scientists on hand were sidelined.
Recently, Inhofe issued a nasty press release rebuking an AP article that found most scientists support the facts in the film An Inconvenient Truth. And just to give it that nice totalitarian flair, he used the old Senate Environment and Public Works committee stationary. Your tax dollars, and all.
Inhofe’s distinguished resumé also includes bullying air-quality experts concerned about pollution, scare-mongering about eco-terrorism, loosening environmental laws for oil refineries, and typing.
If, in the coming months, he accomplishes his goals of defeating any progress on climate change, Inhofe will unveil an even more ambitious agenda: to prove that the environment itself is a hoax. “Trees? Skies? Mountain views? Nothing but a sham perpetrated by landscape painters so they can sell their pictures to hotels and doctor’s offices. This ‘wildlife,’ and here I make grand sarcastic quote gestures with my fingers, is just a smokescreen to keep us from grinding up Canada for fuel. I point to a study by 25 renowned scientists who say there’s no such thing as ‘the Sasquatch.’ Or ‘birds.’ It’s all a liberal hoax.”
UPDATE: