Bye, bye Inhofe

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The climate change denial circus created by Senator James “global warming is a hoax” Inhofe, outgoing chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee has finally come to an end, but not, of course, without some final choice quotes. As reported earlier this week on DeSmog, Inhofe took one last stab at sowing doubt about the realities of global warming and chose again to make the US media the target.

For a while now, Inhofe has been incorrectly claiming that there is a long history of “one-sided” reporting on the issue of climate change, despite media studies (see attached) that show that in fact the climate change “skeptics” have enjoyed a large amount of press over the years. Inhofe continued this unsubstantiated claim at yesterday’s hearing: “Much of the mainstream media has subverted its role as an objective source of information on climate change, into a role of an advocate.”

Coming to the defence of the media, Democrat committee member Senator Frank Lautenberg asked the “expert” witnesses whether they agree with Inhofe’s oft quoted claim that “global warming is the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people.” In response, David Deming, an “adjunct scholar” for the ExxonMobil sweetheart, the National Centre for Policy Analysis, offered his psychological opinion on the subject,: “We are dealing with a psychological phenonmenon which is a mass delusion.” It should be noted that Deming has no actual background in the area of psychology that DeSmog can find.

Keeping the cirucs act alive, Deming and Bob Carter, another “expert” witness, made the outrageous claim that people should be emitting as much greenhouse gas as possible to avoid another ice age.

But the last word goes to Harvard Geophysicist Daniel Schrag who is very happy to see Inhofe finally giving up his gavel: “He [Inhofe] dredges up people that have no real standing in the scientific community and they spout off on their views. I think it’s good for climate policy around the world that this was Senator Inhofe’s last hearing.”

Bye, bye Inhofe.

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Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmogBlog.

He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning.

Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks.

Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder.

Prior to DeSmogBlog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health.

In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications.

Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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