Global warming is a myth?! Some state lawmakers think so

Wednesday, a group of KFTC staff and members headed up to Frankfort to attend a presentation on the "mythâ€ of global warming at a hearing of the Interim Joint Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.  The day began with a press conference where KFTC Chairperson Doug Doerrfeld presented KFTC's position on global warming: namely, that the debate on global warming is over and that our leadership in Kentucky should be in question if they believe it to be a myth.  Carl Shoupe was also on hand to read a statement by James Hansen, a climatologist at NASA.

    The presentation entitled, "Apocalypse?  No!  The scientific, economic, and geopolitical reasons why global warming is not a global crisisâ€ was given by Viscount Christopher Monckton who was a policy advisor for Margaret Thatcher and member of the Science and Public Policy Institute, an arm of Frontiers of Freedom, a right-wing think tank funded in-part by Exxon-Mobile.  He was joined by James Taylor, a representative of the Heartland Institute in Chicago, another think tank that has been heavily funded by Exxon-Mobil.  Their presentations ranged from absurd to comical all the way to offensive.  Viscount Monckton, for instance, claimed that attempting to decrease carbon emissions would lead to condemning "tens of millions of poor people [...] to death."  Even more stunning than inviting two non-scientists to present members of the Kentucky legislature with information about the "mythâ€ of global warming was the fact that Chairman Jim Gooch did not think it was necessary to invite credible climate scientists to participate in the discussion.

From, the Lexington Herald-Leader:

"It really wasn't my intention to get into so much science today," Gooch replied.

Before the hearing, Gooch said he called the Heartland Institute once he decided to address global warming and asked for any skeptical experts it might send. Scientists weren't necessary, he said.

"Well, I mean, where are we going to get scientists?" Gooch asked. "We're limited here in Kentucky to what we can do. I don't know how we'd necessarily get scientists to come here."

Some senators and representatives responded with various degrees of shock and dismay that Gooch would not allow for a debate, while others praised Monckton and Taylor for their ability to rise above the political correct opinion that global warming is real. 

Wait, what?  Doug set the record straight. Global warming IS real!  KFTC holds very strongly to the opinion that the time for debating global warming is decidedly over, and that leadership in Kentucky need to recognize this fact.  It is an embarrassment and offense to the people of the Commonwealth to have such nonsense presented in our state capital as if it were worth merit and discussion.