I am astonished at the appalling scientific ignorance of the country's political leaders. Here is a piece from American Thinker about Represntative Markey. I have watched Markey discuss energy on TV and he is either a cynic or a fool, or maybe both.

July 13, 2008
Top Democrat Blames Darfur, 'Black Hawk Down' on Global Warming

Rick Moran

Occasionally here at AT, we like to highlight idiocy from officials that is so sublime in its illogic and ignorance that the rest of us just sit there, mouth agape, and wonder at how such a dumb brute could achieve a significant position in government.

This is from Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) speaking before a group of kids on Capitol Hill:


"In Somalia back in 1993, climate change, according to 11 three- and four-star generals, resulted in a drought which led to famine," said Markey.

"That famine translated to international aid we sent in to Somalia, which then led to the U.S. having to send in forces to separate all the groups that were fighting over the aid, which led to Black Hawk Down. There was this scene where we have all of our American troops under fire because they have been put into the middle of this terrible situation."


Um, that's not entirely accurate. Myron Ebell, Director of Global Warming Policy at CEI says that droughts occur whether the temperature is going up or down or staying the same; "To say you know the conflict was caused by global warming is to show how really ignorant you are of the scientific issues involved.”

Now Markey is not some backbench Democratic party flunkie. He is a party leader who chairs the House (Select) Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee.

Those weren't the only words of wisdom Markey gave the youngsters. He also blamed a "drought in Darfur" for the genocide there despite the myriad of other roots to the conflict - including a bloody Christian vs. Muslim war being carried out by the Islamic government - while also blaming hurricane Katrina on the idea that the "earth has a fever" but there's no emergency room for it to visit.

Hurricane experts have debunked the idea that storms are intensifying because of global warming but that doesn't seem to stop Markey from serving up a lot of "malarkey."

So Malarkey Markey belives that Darfur, Somalia, and Katrina are all the result of global warming? I'm surprised he didn't work in climate change as the cause of the Iraq War.

At least he would have been consistent.