Senator Inhofe made a big show out of his “ClimateGate” accusations in 2010. In March of 2010, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma made a speech in which he accused scientists of hoaxing climate change data; the speech was so long that it fills five pages of the Congressional Record. On May 26 2010, Senator Inhofe demanded that the Inspector General of the Department of Commerce investigate the content of private e-mail communications stolen from scientific researchers at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in the UK. Inhofe wanted the Inspector General to determine whether the National Oceanic and Atomspheric Administration (NOAA) manipulated climate data. For climate change deniers, such an accusation is vital, because NOAA maintains a record of global temperature data that clearly shows a trend of global warming. Inhofe also asked for an investigation into NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco for telling Inhofe that the scientific consensus affirming global warming is strong.
On February 18 2011 the Inspector General of the Department of Commerce issued his report to Senator Inhofe. The Inspector General found no evidence that NOAA has hoaxed or improperly manipulated its climate data, and also found no reason to doubt the veracity of Dr. Lubchenco’s statement.
The Senator has not mentioned the release of the Inspector General’s report to him in the Congressional Record or in his collection of speeches. Inhofe has not publicized the report in any of his press releases. Inhofe has not shared the findings of the Inspector General in any of his frequent op-ed pieces. James Inhofe didn’t include the Inspector General’s findings in his senatorial news wire.
James Inhofe’s only response to the Inspector General’s report on the integrity of climate change science has been to let loose the crickets. You can hear the chirping.
Despite mounting evidence of human-induced climate change, the mass media and many (if not most) Americans don’t believe it or don’t want to change their ways (until they’re forced to). We need to bring about many changes, but if the industries involved (in doing most of the polluting) aren’t on-board and influence the people that make the rules – we aren’t going to have much of a chance to do anything significant before it’s too late (when we CAN’T change it back no matter what we do – and we’re very close to that now).
Here’s the American Lung Associations’ report on the matter of coal-fired power plants:
http://www.lungusa.org/assets/documents/healthy-air/toxic-air-report.pdf
One of the arguments climate change deniers use is that there is too much uncertainty in the science to warrant any action. Well here’s a 259 page study that says otherwise (that the uncertainty is precisely why action is necessary):
http://climateprogress.org/