As President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential candidates argue climate change is the biggest threat facing the world, Republican presidential candidate [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] plans to lead a congressional hearing next week to question the claims made by global warming activists.
Cruz — the Republican chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness — is convening a hearing titled: “Data or Dogma? Promoting Open Inquiry in the Debate over the Magnitude of Human Impact on Earth’s Climate.”
The hearing is scheduled to take place in Washington next Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 3 p.m. in the Senate Russell Office Building. (RELATED: As Obama Attends UN Talks, Congress Undoes His Global Warming Agenda)
As of now, Cruz has called at least four witnesses, including John Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Judith Curry of the Georgia Institute of Technology and William Happer of Princeton University.
Mark Steyn — a conservative author who has written skeptically about global warming — has also accepted an invitation to appear before the committee.
In a statement provided to TheDC, Cruz said:
As the son of two scientists, I have been taught since I was very young that scientific conclusions should be based on the evidence and the data. The inconvenient truth, for global warming alarmists in 2015, is that for the past 17 years the satellite temperature data have shown almost no warming of the Earth’s climate. This is especially inconvenient for them because the models all showed that the Earth should have continued rapidly warming during this time. In response, we have seen global warming alarmists resort to the language of theology, calling all those who question the alarmists’ conclusions, including many in the scientific community, ‘deniers.’ And they are being called that merely for saying, ‘hold on a minute. Before we make radical policy changes that will have a substantive impact on our economy, jobs and quality of life for millions of Americans, we should take a minute to ensure that these policies are based on real science and real data.’ Especially when the solution to the purported problem always seems to be more and more government.
I look forward to our hearing next week and talking with the witnesses about what is really happening in the field of climate science, and how we can ensure that U.S. policymaking is based on the evidence and the data, and not merely the wishes of liberal global warming alarmists.
A source says Cruz attempted to invite Sierra Club president Aaron Mair to the hearing, but the Sierra Club declined to make him available. Mair and Cruz, a Texas senator, previously sparred over global warming during a committee hearing in October on Capitol Hill.
Cruz’s hearing comes as the President Obama traveled to Paris this week to participate in climate change talks, pushing for international action. (RELATED: Obama Paris Speech: Action On Global Warming Is Best Response To ISIS [VIDEO])
