"The Right Scoop" has a story about an interaction between Ted Cruz and a couple of student activists in New Hampshire. The students pushed Cruz to answer whether or not he cares about the lobster industry, which is threatened by climate change, and whether or not he denies the existence of climate change. One of the students even followed-up by writing a letter to the editor titled, "Ted Cruz doesn't care about climate change hurting Seacoast."
For those interested in watching the interaction, the videos are available on YouTube, including a longer 5 minute clip and a shorter follow up.
In his reply, Cruz uses the typical politician's trick of deploying economy-focused talking points instead of answering the actual question. When pressed, however, Cruz offers an impressive litany of myths in rapid succession. He also touts the conspiracy theory that those promoting climate change action are secretly aiming for "massive government control of the economy, energy sector, and our lives."
Regarding the myths, Cruz starts with the classic global cooling myth and says we've seen 18 years without warming. Then he calls out the supposed "switch" in terminology from global warming to climate change. Finally, Cruz ends with a nice feel-good reference to "the single moms" who face higher electric bills, saying, "We need to follow the facts and data." On this point, we couldn't agree more…
So Sen. Cruz, here are the facts. There was no cooling consensus in the 70s. There is no pause. 2014 was the hottest year on record and 2015 is on track to break that record. There was never a switch from "global warming" to "climate change," as evidenced by the simple fact that decades ago the UN created the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, not the Intergovernmental Panel on Global Warming. And finally, climate action reduces electric bills.
Now a PSA: when filming embarrassing confrontations with politicians on your phone, please turn your phone sideways to film in landscape, instead of portrait. Please.
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