EnvironmentUS Senate

Inhofe Dismisses UN Climate Panel Report

Inhofe dismisses report on climate change BY RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Friday that he is unmoved by a scientific report that experts in the field are increasingly certain of global warming and increasingly convinced it is the result of human activity.

“Today’s release of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Summary for Policymakers proves that the UN is more interested in advancing a political agenda than scientific integrity,” the Oklahoma Republican said in written statement. “The IPCC glossed over the ongoing fifteen-year pause in temperature increases and did nothing to suggest that their predictions might be wrong.”

The International Panel on Climate Change said Friday that it can say with 95 percent certainty that a 0.5 to 1.3 degree Celsius increase in Earth’s surface temperature since 1951 is entirely the result of human activity. A Washington Post report this week said that means scientists are as confident of their findings on this subject as they are that smoking causes cancer.

Skeptics point out most of the measurable change occurred prior to 1998, which is the “15-year pause” referred to by Inhofe. Scientists say that’s because more than 90 percent of the energy trapped by greenhouse gases are absorbed by the oceans, which have continued to warm. Smaller portions of the energy are also absorbed by ice and soil.

Read the complete story at tulsaworld.com

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