98% of Senate votes that climate change is real

[dragon]

Amazing that they were able to get almost all of them on the same page.

The U.S. Senate has voted overwhelmingly, 98 to 1, to approve an amendment affirming that climate change is real and "not a hoax."

The vote came on an amendment to legislation that aims to force approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from the Canadian oil sands to the United States.

Senators opposed to the pipeline, who say it would help accelerate climate change by encouraging mining of oil sands, are using votes on the bill as an opportunity to force Republican senators to take a stand on whether climate change is real. Some Republican lawmakers have dodged the issue, saying they lack the scientific credentials to evaluate the evidence for climate change. One lawmaker, Senator James Inhofe (R–OK), has even called climate change a "hoax."

The amendment, from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D–RI), takes a veiled jab at Inhofe, asking simply whether it is “the sense of the Senate that climate change is real and not a hoax."

In a surprise this afternoon, Inhofe rose before the vote to ask to become a co-sponsor of the Whitehouse amendment. Scattered applause greeted his remarks. "Climate is changing," he said, "and climate has always changed." The hoax that he has talked about, he suggested, is that there are people who think they are so "arrogant" and "powerful" that "they can change climate."

Whitehouse said he hoped the amendment would lead to greater efforts to address the impacts that climate change is having on the oceans and other ecosystems.

Inhofe was one of the last senators to vote, in favor. The lone no vote came from Senator Roger Wicker (R–MS).

link

[Borgholio]

It's just a word game. The co-sponsor of the bill said that climate change is real but human-impacted climate change is a hoax. Same bullshit they've always spewed.

[Elheru Aran]

Also a pointless piece of political theater. They acknowledge that climate change exists... but are they going to actually do anything about it? That's the question right there.

[mr friendly guy]

I will be impressed if it was 98% who said climate change was caused by humans, as opposed to climate change is real (and caused by natural factors).

[wautd]

It's just a word game. The co-sponsor of the bill said that climate change is real but human-impacted climate change is a hoax. Same bullshit they've always spewed.

Indeed, nothing will chance on climate policy based on that amount of ignorance. But what can you expect from a nation where half the people believe in the Flood myth or where over 80 percent of Americans support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA”. Scientific ignorance is bad when politics clashes with science

[Lagmonster]

Where I work, agriculture is the thing, so that Oklahoma survey made it onto our wall of mirth.

As for the Senate, fact or fiction isn't something you vote on, which makes this whole thing exceedingly insulting, borderline retarded behaviour. You assholes are making benevolent fascism seem somewhat appealing by comparison.