Tulsa World
Heat wave has senator sticking to beliefs By JIM MYERS World Washington Bureau 7/22/2006
WASHINGTON -- First came the Al Gore movie, and then there was the Tom Brokaw television documentary.
Now, a heat wave with triple-digit temperatures is gripping much of the nation.
Is U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, who believes that manmade global warming is "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," losing the public relations battle on that issue?
The Oklahoma Republican and chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee concedes that those on the other side of the global warming debate have dominated the air waves lately, but he remains confident that his side will be proved right in the end.
Indeed, Inhofe insists that he feels even stronger about taking on what he sees as the current hysteria about global warming than he did several years ago when he first uttered that now-famous hoax statement.
In an interview, he heaped criticism on what he saw as the strategy used by those on the other side of the debate and offered a historical comparison.
"It kind of reminds . . . I could use the Third Reich, the big lie," Inhofe said.
"You say something over and over and over and over again, and people will believe it, and that's their strategy."
As for anyone trying to use the current heat wave to bolster the case, he said even those on the other side of the debate concede that no one should link a single weather event to climate change.
"A hot summer has nothing to do with global warming," Inhofe said. "Let's keep in mind it was just three weeks ago that people were saying, 'Wait a minute; it is unusually cool."'
He blames the media for handing over an unfair amount of air time and coverage to the side that pushes the claim that links man to climate change.
"I have asked several of them," Inhofe said: 'Name one time when an hour has been given to the other side of the issue.' "
While declining to watch either the Gore movie or the Brokaw documentary, the senator said he armed himself with the statements used in both.
"I know the text, and I know they are using old stuff that has been totally discredited," Inhofe said. "Everything on which they based their story, in terms of the facts, has been refuted scientifically."
He offered his point-by-point response to both.
They include such claims as that polar bear populations are shrinking along with their food supplies, and the glaciers in Glacier National Park are disappearing.
Inhofe insists that the number of polar bears is not dropping and that some of the glaciers in the national park are actually getting bigger.
As for the Kilimanjaro glacier, which reportedly is disappearing, Inhofe said the loss can be blamed on the cutting of trees, which once held the moisture.
"One by one, you can refute everything they are saying," Inhofe said.
He includes in that claim the warnings by some that the planet is closing in on a tipping point or a point of no return when it comes to climate change.
Inhofe recalls the warnings a few decades ago that another ice age was coming.
He dismisses even the suggestions that Americans could help by giving up big cars or using more energy-efficient light bulbs.
"It is not going to make any difference," the senator said.
"But if it makes them feel good, they can do it."
Jim Myers (202) 484-1424 jim.myers at tulsaworld.com