-- Obama administration officials strongly defended the science behind global warming today, calling evidence of dangerous, human-induced climate changes powerful.
At a House hearing, top White House scientist John Holdren said there is a “very strong scientific consensus on the key characteristics of the problem.”
“The current state of knowledge about it, even though incomplete, as science always is, and even though controversial in some details, as science almost always is, is sufficient to make clear that failure to act promptly to reduce global emissions . . . is overwhelmingly likely to lead to changes in climate too extreme and damaging to be adequately addressed by any adaptation measures that can be foreseen,” said Holdren, who heads the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
He spoke at a hearing on climate science convened by the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
Holdren pointed to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data on temperature records going back to 1880 showing that nine of the 10 warmest years have occurred since 1998, and all 15 of the warmest have been since 1990. The lack of warming in recent years does not alter what has been a consistently upward trend, he said, comments echoed by NOAA head Jane Lubchenco. “The overall record is an upward trajectory,” she said.
But Holdren also acknowledged that questions remain about what some of the emails mean. “If there was manipulation of data that was not scientifically legitimate, I regard that as a problem and I would denounce it,” he said. Nonetheless, the whole affair does not reveal any game-changing information, he argued.
“However this particular controversy comes out, the result will not call into question the bulk of our understanding of how the climate works,” he said.
“However this particular controversy comes out, the result will not call into question the bulk of our understanding of how the climate works,” he said.
These jackasses don’t have a friggen’ clue how the climate works.But they know how freedom works and they want don’t want that for the masses.