Official: Global Warming is Fake, Chicken Little.

Well that's the official view of Representative Jim Gooch, a Kentucky State Legislator who used his positon as Chairman of the interim joint Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee to hold a government hearing on the topic where he-

A. Refused to invite any scientist who warns of Global Warming
B. Only invited those who claim Global Warming in junk science.

Pardon me while I gag... more after the jump.

You know, as a Kentuckian I fight stereotypes about my state and Southerners all the time, but guys like Jim Gooch don't make my job any easier.

The very worst thing? Jim Gooch is the Environmental Policy strategist for the Democratic Majority in the State House.

Just shoot me now.

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Legislators hear global warming disputed
By John Cheves
[e-mail]

FRANKFORT -- Global warming is a myth concocted by former Vice President Al Gore, the United Nations, Hollywood and the news media, Kentucky lawmakers were told yesterday.

The interim joint Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing to dispute the idea that the Earth is warming, at least in part because of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere produced by industrial activity.

Chairman Jim Gooch, D-Providence, a longtime ally of the coal industry, said he purposefully did not invite anyone who believes in global warming to testify.

"You can only hear that the sky is falling so many times," said Gooch, whose post makes him the House Democrats' chief environmental strategist. "We hear it every day from the news media, from the colleges, from Hollywood."

Neither of Gooch's invited panelists was a scientist.

James Taylor is a lawyer and fellow with the Heartland Institute, a free-market think-tank in Chicago partially funded by ExxonMobil. Lord Christopher Monckton, the 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, is a British journalist and onetime adviser to then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Monckton generated controversy during the 1980s with his recommendation -- which he repeated for lawmakers yesterday -- that people diagnosed with HIV or AIDS be locked up for life."

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This guys sets my state back 50 years.

•  As a former Kentuckian,

  I am embarrassed to hear this news.  Kentucky and our nation deserve a lot better than such schmucks.  Must be time so see Gooch leave that office to a person more in tune with facts.

  by possum on Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 08:55:53 AM PDT

•  S.O.P. for the Right

  Reports I've seen say the 3 Republican FCC board members refused to attend the public "hearing" on media consolidation in Settle last week.

  Heck Fox News reporter John Kasich, back when he was an Ohio rep some years ago, held a forum around Columbus on welfare reform and officially announced that supporters of welfare were not welcome.

  The right has always depended crucially on staged reality. Hence the design of our mainstream communication systems.

  by Gooserock on Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 08:59:07 AM PDT

  •  but this guy's a DEMOCRAT

    Hence our shame. :(

    by Leggy Starlitz on Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 09:11:59 AM PDT

•  And pi=3.

  Because we say so.

  by tbetz on Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 09:07:02 AM PDT

•  The energy to warm the earth comes from where??

  I don't believe anyone can argue that the earth's climate is warming, but the argument is or should be whether man's activities is the cause!  First off, lets look at where the energy to potentially warm the earth comes from.

  I see 4 sources of potential enegy that over time could warm the earth:

  1.  Solar energy captured by plants as oxidizable carbohydrons.

  2. direct Solar radiation that warms the earth's surface as it is absorbed.

  3. Geothermal energy from the earth's inside that is formed by nuclear fission or left over from the earth's formation

  4.  Nuclear enegy created by man's tinkering with nuclear materials

  I doubt if man has much to do with any changes in 3.  #4 may be significant someday, but probably not now, and either way this has nothing to do with burning fossil fuel.

  Let's look at #1!  I guess the big question would be, does all solar energy that is captured by plants have an inevitable release date back into the atmosphere. If so, does man really then effect that end result.  I mean a huge oil field explosion or a massive unchecked forest fire could do what man does by slowly burning fossil fuel.  We just do not know what has happened in the past and what may happen in the future outside of man's involvement.  However, my point here is that the energy we are releasing for the most part came from the sun over time and was already here waiting to be released somehow. In fact considering #2, with the clearing of the earth, one could postulate that less carbohydrons are being formed now than ever in the past. What does that say for the future of solar eneregy being captured on earth by plants??  

  There is indeed a lot more questions than answers if you look at this problem from an original energy sources point of view, IMHO!

  by truthbetold on Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 09:32:27 AM PDT

  •  Rather than...

    trying to recreate the last 400 years of climate science as a thought experiment, you could go to http://www.solcomhouse.com/..., or any similar site & get a rather complete view of the energy budget involved.

    by Downpuppy on Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 09:54:19 AM PDT

    •  It tells nothing of the origin of the CO2

      All I am saying is the CO2 potential was already here because it comes from captured plant growth over the centuries-melleniums.  Massive primeval forest fires or natural occuring coal or oil catastrophes could still have released the trapped CO2 potential despite man.  

      I assure you I realize that CO2 is the culprit, but I want to stress that the CO2 potential is already here waiting to be oxidized free, and man is just currently increasing the speed of that oxidation.  The amount of new CO2 being captured by plants from sunlight for distant future release is probaly at an all time low right now due to man's land-clearing activities.  Something else to think about.

      by truthbetold on Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 10:29:22 AM PDT

•  As a Hoosier, I Feel Your Pain

  I.e. to say, I am aware of it. Sorry about that. Bummer.

  But then your state hosts the Creation Museum, you know.

  Adam and Eve in the Kentucky Creation Museum.

  by HeartlandLiberal on Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 10:22:41 AM PDT

  •  Don't remind me. n/t

    by patriot spear on Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 10:30:28 AM PDT