Rick Perry: Lying Sack of Shit

Texas Governor Rick Perry today (17 August) accused climate scientists of engaging in fraud and in a vast conspiracy in making their claims that the Earth is warming due to human activities. It is well known that anthropogenic global warming is true, and there are multiple, independent lines of evidence supporting this conclusion. Yet Herr Professor Doktor Perry tells us that Earth's climate has always been changing, and human impact on climate now is merely an unproven theory. Yes, Ricky, climate has undergone natural changes during Earth's history, but it is currently undergoing much more rapid change, change that is attributable to the amount of greenhouse gas humans are spewing into the atmosphere. We're not talking about some theory (as in somebody's hunch), but a consistent conclusion drawn from a multitude of observations.

What next, Gov...will you tell us that Adam and Eve rode about on the backs of dinosaurs, and evolution is only a theory? Oh, that's right, you did.

UPDATE:  I was gratified to learn that rival GOP contender Jon Huntsman's campaign admonished Perry for being a denialist, "We're not going to win a national election if we become the anti-science party." Noted, with additional commentary, by Steve Benen at Political Animal.