Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, who strongly denies that climate change exists, brought a large snowball on the Senate floor Thursday as a real life example that the globe is not warming.
“In case we have forgotten because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record,” said Inhofe, who is the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee while holding the lumpy snowball in his hand. “I asked the chair, do you know what this is? It’s a snowball just from outside here. So it’s very, very cold out. Very unseasonable.”
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“Catch this,” he said, as he tossed the snowball underhand to an unseen person – perhaps a page or an aide – just a couple of feet away.
He then resumed his speech with a smile on his face that indicated he was quite pleased with his demonstration.
A few minutes later, an incredulous Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, one of the most vocal proponents for policies to curb global warming, went to the floor to rebut Inhofe’s claims.
“I want to respond to the presentation by one of the Republican senators suggesting that the continued existence of snow disproves climate change,” Whitehouse said before explaining how studies by NASA and other credible organizations have proven through various scientific methods that the planet is warming.
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