According to an article at Huffington Post, Governor Sarah Palin (R) claimed in a video on her new video channel that climate science is "junk science."
The claim that anthropogenic causes for climate change are "junk science" was noted back in 1989, so Mrs. Palin is not breaking any new ground here.
More beyond the naturally-occurring smouldering cloud of coal smoke, below.
If you wish to watch Governor Palin's screed, you can find it here. (three minutes forty seconds) Bring earbleach. Check your brain at the door.
Essentially, she makes the same tired arguments (climate has never changed before, it's a con job to wreck the coal industry, "so-called" experts don't know what they are saying, weather=climate, &c).
She points out "she is not a denier." She knows the climate is changing, just that it is not by greenhouse gasses or human driven "hysteria." And of course, recommendations to mitigate the problem hurt the poor, who liberals purportedly support.
She claims it will be debunked as thoroughly as eugenics from the last century.
Of course, eugenics is junk science, and was promoted by religious organisations. Had I been born only a few years earlier, I might have wound up in one of Michigan's homes for the feebleminded (epilepsy was included in that characterisation).
On the other hand, the elements contributing to climate science have been known for hundreds of years, not just since the last century.
It was in 1824 when Joseph Fourier (a mathematician) first posited the mechanism for climate change. It was in 1859 that John Tyndall (a physicist) first confirmed in his lab this mechanism (called the 'greenhouse effect') with gasses such as methane, water vapour, and carbon dioxide. In 1896, Svante Arrhenius (a chemist) first calculated how changing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would change warming of the planet.
Arrhenius's law reads as follows:
If the quantity of carbonic acid [CO2] increases in geometric progression, the augmentation of the temperature will increase nearly in arithmetic progression.
His formula for this is still in use today.
Now I only have a high school diploma and can understand this. One can even do an experiment. Governor Palin has been to college (though she did not complete her studies).
I can only assume that those who are in positions of power (representatives and senators) and positions of influence (such as Governor Palin) are not stupid and they understand this too.
The issue is they do not care. They seem to be quite willing to misrepresent the scientific method (think creationism in schools as an "alternative theory" to evolution) for their agenda or their supporters.
They claim they are the party of family values.
My family values include leaving a livable planet for my children. If that is not Governor Palin's family values for her children, I cannot fathom what her values are aside from making money.