Global warming skeptics have no place on House Science, Space and Technology Committee

The U.S. Congress has done it again, electing a global warming skeptic as chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Really, Congress?

In a 2009 survey of 3,146 Earth scientists (90 percent of whom had doctorates), 97.5 percent of the scientists who actively published research on climate change said that humans are contributing to global warming.

In a survey done by William Anderegg in 2010, results affirmed that 97-98 percent of experts, who actively publish in the field, supported the consensus. The survey also found that those who didn’t believe humans were responsible were publishing academic papers much less than those who did believe.

Elsewhere in the world, it’s laughable that Americans don’t believe in global warming. The German parliament is undergoing a climate change project called Energiewende, in which the country is attempting to have 80 percent renewable power by 2050. Currently, the parliament is powered by 50 percent renewable power, through biofuels and solar energy. Germany is leading the way in renewable energy.

That used to be us. The United States was known for leading the world into a brighter future, be it through the space race or other scientific pursuits. But now we’re not even trying to keep up.

We’re letting a few congressmen who are controlled by the oil and coal industries keep us from making progress in renewable resources, and quite frankly, it’s putting our world in danger. In 2007, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wanted to make the House carbon-neutral by 2008. Clearly that hasn’t happened. Even the solar panels that were put up on the White House by former President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s have been taken down.

I can understand having global warming skeptics in Congress, as there are many in our population who don’t believe that humans are the cause, but those people shouldn’t be in charge of the House Science Committee.

The person in charge of the Science Committee should be dedicated to moving our country toward a brighter future in science, and that includes becoming a government and a nation that uses renewable resources.

— Dan Desrochers is a pre-journalism sophomore. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu or on Twitter via @drdesrochers .