And The Dodo Goes To . . . Inhofe
Posted on October 28, 2012 by Kurt Hochenauer Posted in General News
U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, made national news again last week for his radical disavowing of global warming and its increasingly obvious consequences.
On Friday, the Center for Biological Diversity announced it had awarded Oklahoma's senior senator its annual Rubber Dodo Award, "given annually to those who have done the most to drive endangered species extinct." The center's director, Kierán Suckling, said Inhofe was chosen for "being at the vanguard of the retrograde climate-denier movement."
According to a Suckling:
"Senator Inhofe's pet theory that climate change is an elaborate hoax would be hilarious, if only he weren't an elected representative of the American people. If he were, say, a performance artist, it'd be really funny. But sadly he has the power to affect U.S. climate policy. The United States has a chance – and a duty – to take significant steps to slow the climate crisis, and a brief window of time before it's too late for us to do so. Deniers like Inhofe, in positions of leadership, are dooming future generations of people to a far more difficult world."
I would only add that Inhofe's "hoax" theory also helps make Oklahoma look hilarious, too, because the state continues to elect him to office.
The center also noted:
This year is on track to become the warmest on record; some 40,000 temperature records have been broken in the United States in 2012 alone, while Arctic sea ice has melted to a record low. The year has also seen record droughts, crop failures, massive wildfires, floods and other unmistakable signals that manmade global warming is tightening its grip, threatening people and wildlife around the globe.
In typical fashion, Inhofe had this to say about the award:
I am truly honored that yet another radical environmental group has given me an award for my efforts to put a stop to President Obama's far-left global warming agenda. The Center for Biological Diversity should be pleased to know that my award will have a prominent place in my office, along with all the others I have been proud to receive over the years. As the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, I have worked every day to expose the radical left's extremist agenda aimed at ending American production of oil, gas, and coal because of the devastating consequences it will have on the American people.
Inhofe has received $511,250 in campaign contributions since 2007 from the oil and gas industry, a fact that often goes unnoted in the corporate media here when it even tries to address his motivations, which isn't often. Inhofe's antics receive little coverage or scrutiny here by the state's media.
According to media reports, Inhofe has been recently campaigning for the controversial Todd Akin, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Missouri. Akin became a controversial figure last summer when he claimed women couldn't get pregnant during a "legitimate rape" because their bodies wouldn't allow it. The legitimate rape argument, which has no basis in scientific fact, is used by anti-abortion groups, which want to ban abortion even in cases of rape.
Obviously, Inhofe and Akin share a basic disdain for science, whether it concerns the environment or the human body.
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