The United States Senate passed a measure on Wednesday stating that “climate change is real and is not a hoax” by a margin of 98-1.
NBC News reports that “a majority of the Senate, including 15 Republicans, are also on the record stating that human activity contributes to climate change.”
According to NBC News, “the ‘hoax’ language, attached to a bill to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline, was a resolution introduced by Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.”
The amendment was expected to fail, but Republicans parsed the words of the amendment, arguing they could vote for it but at the same time believe that climate change was not man-made.
The amendment was designed, at least in part, as a stab at Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) who is well-known for his skepticism regarding the science behind climate change. However the only dissenting vote came from Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS).
Voting in the affirmative for the measure, Inhofe argued that the true “hoax” was not climate change itself, rather it was saying it is the result of human activity.
Inhofe elaborated on the Senate floor stating:
Climate is changing, and climate has always changed, and always will, there’s archeological evidence of that, there’s biblical evidence of that, there’s historic evidence of that, it will always change. The hoax is that there are some people that are so arrogant to think that they are so powerful that they can change climate. Man can’t change climate.
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