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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has been surging in the polls lately, leading more and more political strategists to predict (R-FL) for the Republican nomination. He was tied for first place with Trump in a poll of Republicans in Iowa last week. Cruz—well known for his over-the-top rhetoric—has made some outrageous statements on climate change in recent months.
1. On Wednesday, Cruz mocked President Obama’s assertion that the COP21 climate summit in Paris was a “powerful rebuke” to terrorists and said the President and Hillary Clinton‘s stance on climate change as a security threat is “nutty, fruitcake stuff.”
“What nonsense. I mean, President Obama and Hillary Clinton believe that the SUV in your driveway is a greater threat to our safety and security than are radical Islamic terrorists who are crucifying Christians and beheading children and pledging to wage jihad on the United States of America,” he said, repeating an attack line he has used before.
2. Cruz is using his position as Senate chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness to hold a hearing on whether climate science is “data or dogma.”
The hearing, Data or Dogma? Promoting Open Inquiry in the Debate over the Magnitude of Human Impact on Earth’s Climate, is scheduled for Tuesday. Cruz rejects the scientific consensus on global warming, arguing “there is still a healthy and vigorous debate about the causes and nature of climate change based on the data and scientific evidence.” He also contends that observed satellite data shows no significant warming trend in the last 18 years, despite findings from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which specifically prove that there has been no “pause” in global warming.
Scientific conclusions should be based on the evidence & data, not the wishes of liberal global warming alarmists – https://t.co/8T9STFIF8K
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) December 2, 2015
3. The so-called “data or dogma” hearing certainly won’t be the first time the Texas senator has used a Senate hearing to debate climate science.
During a Senate hearing, Opportunity Denied: How Overregulation Harms Minorities, Cruz (chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts, as well) stonewalled the entire discussion. Sierra Club President Aaron Mair, who testified, said he was there to talk about “how communities of color, which are disproportionately affected by pollution and climate disruption, rely on these safeguards to protect them.” Instead, Cruz used the opportunity to badger Mair about the existence of global warming.
Watch the hearing here:
And check out Sierra Club President Aaron Mair’s response here:
4. Even Carl Mears, a scientist whose data Cruz cites in defending his claims, came forward earlier this year to reject the way his data is being used.
Mears, a physicist and senior scientist at Remote Sensing Systems, wrote:
Mr. Cruz … likes to cite statistics about the last 17 years because 17 years ago, the … observed temperatures were substantially above normal … When one starts their analysis on an extraordinarily warm year, the resulting trend is below the true long term trend. It’s like a pro baseball player deciding he’s having a batting slump three weeks after a game when he hit three homers because he’s only considering those three weeks instead of the whole season.