the insults just validate his efforts to expose what he says are the lies and exaggerations of global warming alarmists. And, as he told the Oklahoma Impact Team, his efforts are finally paying off, because public opinion on the issue is shifting.
Recent polls show this claim to be true.
A Pew Research Center poll done last October showed that Americans who believe there's "solid evidence the earth is warming" had dropped from 71 percent in 2008 to 57 percent. Also, a Gallup poll this March showed that the percentage of Americans who feel the seriousness of global warming is being exaggerated had jumped from 31 percent, in 2008, to 48 percent.
Poll results like those have Senator Inhofe feeling, not only validated, but vindicated.
"It was eight years ago that I got involved in this whole global warming, cap and trade thing," Sen. Inhofe told to a group of voters recently at a town hall meeting in Perry.
"I was called the worst person--well, the most dangerous man on the planet," Inhofe said. "That's what they called me at that time."
"That" time was not long after a signature speech Inhofe delivered on the Senate floor in July 2003, in which he offered "compelling evidence that catastrophic global warming is a hoax."
The speech thrust Inhofe into a position few, if any, other elected officials had publicly staked out -- global warming denier. Not only was the self-proclaimed maverick saying that global warming is not being caused by human activity, he was saying global warming isn't happening at all.
"Now, I have to say, it was miserable for about six years, because I was the only one out there," Inhofe said.
Inhofe was ridiculed and dismissed in mainstream and left-leaning publications and said even his own granddaughter questioned his thinking.
"She said, 'Why is it that you don't understand global warming?' This is my granddaughter," Inhofe said.
But then came the scandal that gave Inhofe and other climate change skeptics something tangible to hold up for public scrutiny, and it came, perhaps not coincidentally, on the eve of the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen last December.
Dubbed "Climategate," the scandal surrounded the publication of more than 1,000 hacked e-mails between top climate change scientists affiliated with the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Great Britain.
Among other things, the e-mails made reference to the use of a statistical "trick" to hide a decline in temperatures; to keeping papers that contradicted the scientists' conclusions about climate change out of the UN climate report; and to the current lack of warming not fitting with their global warming theory.
Follow-up investigations conducted by the British Parliament, as well as, by university authorities have cleared the scientists and their science.
But Senator Inhofe said his own investigation has shown that Climategate is "real" and that the science behind global warming has been "cooked."
"After what has been exposed now, I can't imagine there's anyone out there who really does believe," Inhofe said.
The truth is, of course, there are many who still believe that the earth is warming.
Oklahoma climatologist Gary McManus is one of them, despite the e-mail scandal.
"I took that controversy very seriously and I did look through all the documents," McManus said.
He says the e-mails do reflect poor decisions by some of the most influential scientists in the field, but "that doesn't really devalue the rest of the science that the world has provided us on climate change."
McManus said the science has been independently verified at numerous labs, including NASA and the National Climatic Data Center, both in the United States.
"Overwhelmingly, that science reports that the earth has been warming, and the cause is mainly the increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," McManus said.
Senator Inhofe called that alarmist rhetoric. He said the e-mails showed how scientists have manipulated data to fit their theory and have exposed the global warming lie.
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8:46
Global Warming is a Lie! Al Gore is Wrong!by ILYIAB7,735 views
Inhofe is not an 'idiot'. Just a liar.
drumcircler 1 month ago
soooo thier top scientist who say global warming is working out like thye should are an Australian and a director 2 times...wtf??
NorthirnLights 5 months ago
I love the poll at the end. "Is global warming fact or fiction?" Yes,No,Unsure.
kellygiz 6 months ago
just believing that global warming is hoax doesn't make it true.
Refer to the FACTS.
The facts say global warming is real and even worse than we think.
oygp 7 months ago
@gregjalbert Yeah, cause you know that's what freedom is all about. Brain dead moron.
lima33ful 9 months ago
Because if more people don't believe in climate change, it can't be real! Right?
blogenfreude 11 months ago
Koch Industries: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine: greenpeace . org/usa/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/koch-industries -- Billionaire oilman David Koch and his brother Charles (Koch Industries) have quietly funneled $50 million to climate-denial front groups that are working to delay policies and regulations aimed at stopping global warming is no joking matter. WHO'S A LIAR? PROSECUTE DISINFORMATION CRIMINALS.
gregjalbert 1 year ago
@Thisawareness
"INFORMATIONLIBERATION(dot)com.."
I looked at just one article in that site and saw the name Peter Schiff then I just closed it without reading further.
Is that all you read on the net? How credible that guy is while he always have his agenda first and look for the proof to suites his agenda?
It's not anywhere close to true journalism, I can tell you that much.
When you read his article, you don't look at it with critical view. You look at it as a religious preaching.
allgoo19 1 year ago
What an ignoramus. A moron. A scoundrel.
phixl 1 year ago
@allgoo19 Future revenue? Managing emission of Carbon dioxide, is indeed becoming the World's Biggest Commodity Market with Futures and Options worthy trillions of dollar. Bigger than oil. Nice try bud, take care and have a good nite
Thisawareness 1 year ago