This year is shaping up to be the warmest on record and some scientists are already predicting next year will be worse. But you probably wouldn’t know that if all you listened to were the views of each and every Republican running for their party’s 2016 nomination. That sad fact was well illustrated this week when eight well-known accomplished climate scientists rated the Democratic and GOP presidential fields for their knowledge on the science of climate. The criteria? The candidates’ own words. The results are both depressing and predictable even though this was no political stunt intended to damage anyone or any party. It was done as seriously and as objectively as it possibly could be:
At the request of The Associated Press, eight climate and biological scientists graded for scientific accuracy what a dozen top candidates said in debates, interviews and tweets, using a 0 to 100 scale.
To try to eliminate possible bias, the candidates' comments were stripped of names and given randomly generated numbers, so the professors would not know who made each statement they were grading. Also, the scientists who did the grading were chosen by professional scientific societies.
You’ll have to go the AP Story to get the full results, but Clinton scored highest and all the democrats made at least a “B” or better. By contrast the highest scoring Republican was Jeb!, the only GOP hopeful who even passed with a solid “D!” Ted Cruz scored the lowest of the lot, with a pitiful six points. A climate scientist friend quipped to me that they’d be willing to give a five-point curve to students on a comparable quiz, just for getting their name right.