The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Political ‘Science’
“House Republicans rejected amendments offered Tuesday by Democrats that called on Congress to accept the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, it is caused in large part by human activity and it is a threat to human health,” the Hill reports:
Committee ranking Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) offered an amendment Tuesday that called on Congress to agree that climate change is occurring. The amendment failed on a party-line vote of 20-31. No Republicans voted for the amendment.
The amendment says that “Congress accepts the scientific finding of the Environmental Protection Agency that ‘warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.’ “
“This finding is so obviously correct that there should be no need to offer the amendment,” Waxman said.
Two other Democrats offered similar amendments that differed slightly in wording, which were voted down by the same party-line vote.
The Dems’ intent is to portray Republicans as “antiscience,” but only someone with no understanding of science could reach that conclusion. Scientists attempt to explain the world by formulating hypotheses and conducting empirical observations to test them. “Global warming” is one such hypothesis. By treating it as an ideological doctrine and effectively making it part of their party platform, it is Democrats who are showing themselves to be hostile to science.
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