Bob Stallman, head of the American Farm Bureau Federation, has declared that the earth is cooling in testimony Tuesday before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.  So it must be true.

Using the Frank Luntz approved language of “sound science,” Stallman argues against any Congressional efforts to fight global warming. 

He has a good name for the cause, eh? Stallman?  It’s par for the course for the Farm Bureau to deny, delay and attempt to kill any action on climate change, despite the risk to farmers of ignoring the issue.

Despite pointing out himself that climate data “clearly indicate an identifiable warming trend” and that “carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are increasing and that man-made emissions have increased for a number of decades,” the stall man argues that “those aren’t the only facts, and they don’t tell the whole story.”
True.  Missing entirely from Stallman’s testimony was any mention of the many significant challenges farmers will face if we FAIL to address climate change.  Droughts, torrential rains and storms are just a few examples of global warming consequences that will negatively affect agriculture.  Farmers could pay a steep price for the stall-and-kill lobbying efforts of the Farm Bureau if Congress fails to pass strong, science-based legislation to combat climate change.

Brad Johnson over at The Wonk Room takes Stallman to task over his denial of the fact that “the last ten years have been the warmest decade by far — significantly warmer than the previous decade of 1989-1998, which had been the warmest, itself significantly warmer than 1979-1988, then the warmest decade in the last 150 years.” 

Johnson even includes a nice, pretty graph for Stallman to review and hopefully come to the conclusion that he’s wrong.

But, as Stallman himself says, “facts are stubborn things.”

Stallman also testified that “leadership only occurs when people are following you.” 

Dues-paying members of the Farm Bureau who disagree with Stallman’s stance on this issue should voice their disapproval of their main lobbying group’s efforts against climate action, and stop following him.