Romney Skeptical on Human Role in Climate - Critics think he's shifting to the right

(Newser) – Mitt Romney's views on global warming are back in the news. This week, he reaffirmed his skepticism about humans contributing to climate change. CBS News detects a "rightward shift" as the campaign goes on, and both Democrats and Rick Perry agree, notes CNN. Judge for yourself, as Politico rounds up some of his statements on the subject:

* Thursday: "My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us."

* August: "Do I think the world's getting hotter? Yeah, I don't know that, but I think that it is. I don't know if it's mostly caused by humans."

* June: "I don't speak for the scientific community, of course, but I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that. ... I don't know how much our contribution is to that, because I know there's been periods of greater heat and warmth than in the past, but I believe we contribute to that. And so I think it's important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and global warming that you're seeing."

* His 2010 book No Apology: "I believe that climate change is occurring—the reduction in the size of global ice caps is hard to ignore. I also believe that human activity is a contributing factor. I am uncertain how much of the warming, however, is attributable to man and how much is attributable to factors out of our control."

Your recent thread was pulled for ‘Bloomberg’ reason.

Just wanted to say ‘Good for Rick Perry’ to expose Romney so thoroughly. Perry is a good man - I just think he is a better Governor of Texas than a Presidential candidate. JMHO and not bashing.

Agree. We cannot trust a thing this guy says. Look at his actions, his appointments while governor of Mass. He is a leftist who will say anything to get elected.”

That’s the critical point of all this!...Trust! I’d say he is more of an Opportunist than a Leftist..similar to Clinton, but somewhat more principled and moral than Bubba.
To my knowlege he didn’t carry out this man-made global warming position in regulation or legislation. But his flip-fopping on the 2nd Amendment is even worse, and a perfect example, because he signed the first and toughest assault ban in Taxachussetts as Governor. Then, in 2006, anticpating his Presidential nominee run, he joined the NRA as a Life member. He has supported the Brady 5-day waiting period; said that semi-autos were only for killing people. Now he says that he wouldn’t sign any gun control legislation as President. (BTW the NRA shows no support (nor opposition) for him)

He claims to own a gun and has gone hunting but further investigation revealed he does not own a gun and never had a hunting license.

“So I’m a hunter and believe in Second Amendment rights, but I also believe that assault weapons are not needed in the public population.” (Boston Globe-1/19/07)

The thing that totally puzzles me is that he gets from 20% to 30% Republican support. Hard to believe that Repubs are as stupid as the general population??!

Romney is the RINO candidate for president. Despite liberal Republican support for him, if he becomes the Republican candidate, the Republicans will be *lucky* if he loses to Obama; because four more years of Obama trying to destroy the country will be better than four years of Romney doing everything the Democrats want, and destroying the Republican party and any remaining hope America has.

The RINOs forced Bob Dole and John McCain on us. They have no right to do that again. They have neither core values nor moral authority, and will support liberal Democrats before they will support Republican conservatives.

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