To the Tulsa World Editor

Letter to our local editor

Sunday, August 14, 2011, 1:58:15 PM | Chuck Ayers

Letter to the Editor: A king of denial. Katherine Horton, Tulsa. Sen. James M. Inhofe’s denial of climate change and his contempt for climate scientists and environmentalists are nothing but collusive trickery to promote his agenda of protecting the oil and gas industry. We are already witnessing overwhelming evidence of global climate change: drought (especially here in the Southern Plains, where our farmers are struggling), record heat and cold, rising ocean levels and temperatures, accelerating polar ice melt, upward shift of plant and animal ranges, changes in growing seasons, and extreme weather events. The parallel rise of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and the Earth’s temperature throughout recorded history cannot be denied. Inhofe’s vision is not only myopic, but incredibly disingenuous. His statement that the notion of global warming is “the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” is a cynical ruse meant to indoctrinate and distort the overwhelming scientific evidence. To ignore and ridicule this evidence is nothing short of extreme and willful negligence by someone who was elected to protect the health and welfare of his constituents, not the bottom line of his corporate benefactors. If he were simply a science skeptic, would he be making every effort to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air and Water Acts? Self-serving politics and corporate protection are not what we need. We need leaders with a far-reaching perspective and a true respect for life. For Inhofe to willfully deny reality is not only folly, but a dereliction of duty.