How do you rank leading U.S. politicians in terms of ignorance of climate science?

Unfortunately, trying to separate them into ranked groups based on anything other than their skill as political whores and to exploit the fear and ignorance of the nation's poorest educated, least informed, and most intellectually lazy voters, is difficult because there is little significant measurable difference between any of them. A large segment of the public is anti-education, -intellectual, and -science and they vote for politicians who support their beliefs. 65% of Iowa voters have righteously rejected the evil of evolution and believe that God has sent Palin and Bachmann to lead them in their Christian crusade against homosexuals, flag burners, illegal immigrants, anyone who looks like they might be an illegal immigrant, people who wear stuff on their heads other than baseball caps, anyone who does not think the Christian God can kick any other God's butt - and twice on Sunday, and people who say the reason they go to college is "to get an education".

The best I can do is nominate the politician who currently has taken stupidity from being a purely theoretical concept studied by Ivory Tower geeks made rich by research grants funded by the taxes of every unskilled, low income America worker that has ever lived and put it into practice in the real world - Gov. Rick Perry of Texas.

Faced with record drought conditions, the Texas A&M Animal Science graduate (2.5 GPA), frat boy, and male cheerleader whose campaign platform includes Denial of both Biological Science (God trumps science) and Global Warming (a criminal conspiracy of unknown and unnamed scientists who have manipulated the critical climate data (which, like God, does not seem to exist anywhere in the known universe), the Governor issued a proclamation declaring a 3-day period of prayer asking God to bring rain to Texas (and, while he was in the neighborhood, to get rid of the EPA) and an end to the drought and associated wild fires.

Taking no chances - in case God does not waste his time listening to the prayers of common folks - he organized a take-no-prisoners, balls-to-the-wall, intensive 7-hour mega-prayer by tens of thousands of God-fearing evangelicals to save Texas and the nation - and to enjoy a feast of hamburgers, nachos, and hot dogs.

With God on board, Governor Perry was free to cut the funding to volunteer fire departments (which protect most of Texas) by 75%.

It was perfect. Really, what could wrong? After all, had not Governor Perry along with Alabama's Bob Riley, Louisiana's Bobby Jindal, and Mississippi's Haley Barbour successfully prayed-away the BP oil spill in a single day?

Well, first of all, as a result of either not being real or of telling the good Governor to fck-off, God did not deliver on the rain, the drought worsened, and wild fires erupted over vast areas of the state forcing the federal government to declare 213 counties in Texas natural disaster areas. Never one to act the coward and gutlessly avoid taking responsibility for his decisions and actions, Governor Perry immediately blamed the federal government for not stepping in sooner to solve the problem.

How stupid does someone have to be to believe that devastating wild fires are best dealt with by replacing fire-fighting personnel and fire-fighting services with a group prayer conducted by a bunch of hot dog and nacho-munching numb-skulls who think the US Constitution should be amended so our democratic republic can be transformed into a quasi-theocratic state based on God's Law and Old Testament justice?

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Maxx --

<<He has now won the battle, the Warmist have lost and they know it.<<

Inhofe promised Congressional hearings and criminal proceedings against a number of climate scientists.

He got nothing. No climate scientist in the world has lost their job, been demoted or reprimanded, charged with a crime, been jailed or fined, or found guilty in any way of unethical or unprofessional behavior. A half dozen independent investigations all have exonerated the scientists and validated the science.

And you call that a victory? That might be the most pathetically desperate claim in all of Denier-dom.

We should always listen to the scientific experts on scientific issues. Climate science is no exception. Deniers have engaged in an active smear campaign against climate scientists in order to convince the public that they should trust guys like James Inhofe and Rush Limbaugh instead. The sad thing is that so many people are falling for it. But as you can see from some of the answers here, it's not too surprising, considering their mental capabilities.

I don't know of specific quotes because so much of what they say just dumbfounds me. I heard a term recently that I love, "fact proof" they were referring to Pres. Obama and how some people will continue to believe he is not a natural born citizen or that his is Muslim. I believe it can also apply to the Republican party and in particular to the Tea Party. All they see is that any environmental laws or any attempt to slow down our rate of pollution is anti business. They don't want to believe because it isn't in the best interest of those who get them elected, fossil fuel energy companies and other polluting corporations. I see them all as short sighted, if they are right and humans have no effect of the climate then the worst that can happen is we have a less polluted earth and a few mega rich people are slightly less mega rich. However if the climate is affected by human behavior, and we continue to let pollution happen at the current rate, we will likely have destroyed the only environment that can support human life and money won't help anyone.

I know I didn't answer your question, but I've heard all of the Tea Party candidates state at one time or another that the EPA needs to be de-funded because it is killing jobs.

I think most politicians are ignorant, but others, such as Michele Bachmann and James Inhofe, actively spread wrong information. I've linked Bachmann's video about carbon dioxide before, so I won't do it here, but I think even deniers would have a hard time watching it without coming to the realization that she doesn't know what she's talking about.

“Soviet Politburo September 8, 1927

“Trotsky: Let us present our platform to the party congress. What are you afraid of?

Stalin: Comrade Trotsky demands equality between the Central Committee and his opposition group. In whose name do you speak so insolently?

Trotsky ally: Why are you trying to hide our platform? What does this say about your courage?

Stalin: We are not prepared to turn the party into a discussion club.”

George Orwell, Animal Farm, Chapter 7

“They had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes.”

E-mails from Phil Jones (East Anglia University)

July 8, 2004

“I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow — even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!”

March 11, 2003

“I will be emailing the journal to tell them I’m having nothing more to do with it until they rid themselves of this troublesome editor.”

LEAST IGNORANT: Jon Huntsman:

"To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy."

http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/its-free-blog/2011/aug/1...

NEXT LEAST IGNORANT: Mitt Romney doubts people cause it:

http://blog.chron.com/rickperry/2011/09/jon-huntsm...

That's like trying to tell which M & M you've got before you eat it- you can guess by the smell and shape but you're never sure. What I mean is, if you're judging politicians by what you see in the papers, hear in the news and by what people tell you, you've been dragged into that naive spiral the rest of the world has already followed in.

How can you rank leading too? A leading politician to me may be a nobody to you and vice versa. Please may you refrain from asking questions which can never be answered in future.

Thank you.

In terms of the science itself I would rank 95-99% of *all ploticians* as flat out ignorant (more towards 99% actually) whether they support the scientific consensus or not.

Bachman definitely tops the list however, but I can only assume that's because she was forced to get that evil HPV vaccine resulting in her mild to acute (depending on the day) mental retardation (sarcasm).

Edit - HOLY F! Starbuck is back?!?!?!

I'd say they all have a pretty good head on their shoulders, considering it's been proven that global temperature has fluctuated from day one, and even if the world is in a warming stage, it's not because of carbon emissions or because sheep fart too much.

This is getting ridiculous, it's like the Birther thing. You were proven wrong - get over it.

barry obama, john heinz kerry, henry nose waxman, barbara boxer, and the rest of the democrats