In an alternate universe, where up is down, planets are flat, and hot is actually cold, lives a certain Republican Senator named James Inhofe. He has been known to travel to the US Senate and hold climate change hearings in which science fiction is introduced as โevidenceโ that climate change is a โhoaxโ, and in which individuals with questionable scientific judgment are called upon to profess their agreement with hisย views.
One tired argument that he and his oily friends have consistently brought up is that global warming is cyclical, and is caused by sunspots. Regardless of the fact that the โsunspots and cosmic raysโ theory of global warming has been conclusively disproved (multiple times), Inhofe brought it up in today’s Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meeting, citing the Farmer’s Almanac as his โresearchโย source.
Regarding the mark-up on the bills being considered, Inhofe said:
Wikipedia gives a good description of the Farmer’s Almanac as:
Click here to see for yourself. It’s a quaint publication, with a โtop secret โ formula (and forecaster) used to predict long-term weather. Mainstream meteorologists and meterological researchers tend to question the accuracy of the Almanac.
What is absolutely without question is that the Farmer’s Almanac is a great source of global warming skepticism. For example, we have well-known skeptic Joseph D’Aleo writing the climate change section of the Almanac. His introduction endsย with:
He continues his discussion with classic skeptic stuff, including the pieces โIs Global Warming on the Wane? The Case for a Cool Climateโ and โIs Global Warming on the Wane? How Solar Goes Polarโ, the latter being a treatise on the abovementioned โsunspots cause global warmingโย theory.
Not surprisingly, Inhofe quoted D’Aleo in one of his rants on the Senate floor a yearย ago:
Doubtless, the Farmer’s Almanac occupies a prominent spot on Senator Inhofe’s desk. And given who’s writing for their global warming section, it’s no surprise that Inhofe thinks the Almanac is a solid scientificย source.
Who knows. Maybe on Inhofe’s planet, itย is.
