Rick Perry, a Tea Party Republican candidate for president, in New Hampshire today repeated his beliefs that climate change is false, and went two steps further than others have, by calling global warming a “contrived phony mess,†and by suggesting that climate change scientists are on the take, falsifying their data to make a buck, falsely claiming “we are seeing almost weekly or even daily scientists are coming forward,” to denounce the validity of climate change science.
Via Brad Johnson at Think Progress:
Perry was questioned by Jim Rubens, a former New Hampshire Republican legislator and technology investor, who noted that the National Academy of Sciences, which has advised presidents since its founding by Abraham Lincoln, has concluded that global warming is caused primarily by fossil fuels.
“If observed scientific data and the National Academy of Sciences are both wrong on an issue involving thousands of scientists, and an issue as prominent as global warming,†Rubens asked, “doesn’t this call into question the entire science discovery process that forms the foundation of a hundred years of America’s technological preeminence?â€
“You may have a point there,†Perry replied, arguing that “there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.”
Because evidently, according to Perry’s Texas oil-money-benefited mind, it’s the National Academy of Sciences, and not the Koch Brothers, who know more about the science of climate change.
Perry continues, ludicrously:
“You may have a point there, because I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. And I think we are seeing almost weekly or even daily scientists are coming forward and questioning the idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change. Yes the climate is changing, they’ve been changing ever since the earth was born. But I do not buy into that a group of scientists who have in some cases found to be manipulating this information.
“And the cost to the country and the world of implementing these anti-corbon programs is in the billions if not trillions of dollars at the end of the day. And I don’t think, from my perspective, that I want America to be engaged in spending that much money still on a scientific theory that has not been proven, and from my perspective, is being put more and more into question.”
Perhaps Governor Perry would like to take a trip to the polar regions and see just how “manipulated” the data is?
On a personal note, my fiancé bought me the complete DVD set of the BBC’s Planet Earth for my birthday yesterday. During the entire first episode, titled, “From Pole To Pole,” all I could think about was how many of these animals were already dead from climate change. Perry, and all of us, should be too.
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