Fred Thompson on global warming

The NY Times has a nice breakdown of what the U.S. presidential hopefuls have said about global warming and what to do or not to do regarding curbing greenhouse emissions. Although they had different ways of stating it, most agreed that the U.S. would be better off in the long run if emissions were reduced one way or another.

A few of them, however, have some wacky things to say. For example, here's a quote from Fred Thompson in April 2007:

Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. It seems scientists have noticed recently that quite a few planets in our solar system seem to be heating up a bit, including Pluto. NASA says that the Martian South Pole's ice cap has been shrinking for three summers in a row. Maybe Mars got its fever from earth. If so, I guess Jupiter's caught the same cold, because it's warming up too, like Pluto. This has led some people, not necessarily scientists, to wonder if Mars and Jupiter, non signatories to the Kyoto Treaty, are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists who run their air-conditioning at 60 degrees and refuse to recycle. Silly, I know, but I wonder what all those planets, dwarf planets and moons in our solar system have in common. Hmmmm. Solar system. Hmmmm. Solar? I wonder. Nah, I guess we shouldn't even be talking about this. The science is absolutely decided. There's a consensus. Ask Galileo

What a funny guy...I bet he thinks he is really amusing. Unless he's serious. Yikes. Is this quote taken out of context? Perhaps. Still, he might want to comment on the matter more seriously. Here's a more thorough discussion of the whopping 3 years of Mars data. Jupiter? Where'd he get that information? Again, we have an example of someone who is deliberately mingling science with the debate about policy implications to "muddy" the discussion. Since he doesn't like Kyoto, then the science must be bad. I'm not saying Kyoto is the answer...I'm not sure what the best course of action is...the point is, that is the debate we should be having. And the last bit, throwing in the Galileo comment...do we even need to go there? What a nincompoop.

If you go on the Friends of Fred Thompson website, he does have this comment...the last bullet point under the second-to-last category of "Energy Security":

Conducting research and development into technologies that improve the environment, especially the reduction of CO2 emissions.

Rather vague...but he does at least mention it. Seems like lip service to me.

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