By attempting to discredit the thousands of esteemed scientists and world leaders who agree that global warming is making modern hurricanes increasingly fiercer and more deadly, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) is playing politics with the lives of millions of Americans and risking our national security.
As New Orleans staggers towards recovery and the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico (made even warmer by global warming) ratchet Hurricane Rita up to a Category 4 or 5 storm, Inhofe is planning on using taxpayer time and money to commandeer upcoming Senate hearings with the goal of trying to debunk the already well-established link between global warming and killer hurricanes. Instead of helping prepare for the devastation that global warming has in store for us (and working to stop it), Inhofe is whistling past the ecological graveyard.
Thankfully, Inhofe is becoming increasingly isolated -- part of a rapidly shrinking head-in-the-sand minority among his fellow Senators. His Paleolithic rantings would be laughable if he wasn't chairing the committee charged with dealing with global warming. But he is... and that means that making ludicrous statements like calling global warming the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people" can no longer be treated as a laughing matter.
Inhofe needs a wake-up call -- and fast.