I Met Pat Toomey Once - And I Thought He Was Smarter Than This

Honestly.

From Greg Sargent at the Washington Post:

As many people have already pointed out, some of the leading beneficiaries of this season of Tea Party craziness are Republican candidates who hold extreme views on specific issues but nonetheless come across as moderate and reasonable when compared to the likes of Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell.

Case in point: Pennsylvania Senate candidate Pat Toomey. In a local radio interview on Friday, Toomey said the degree to which human activity is to blame for global warming is being "very much disputed" and "debated."

And when asked about Global Warming, here's what he said:

My view is, I think the data is pretty clear. There has been an increase in the surface temperature of the planet over the course of the last 100 years or so. I think it's clear that that has happened. The extent to which that has been caused by human activity I think is not as clear. I think that is still very much disputed and has been debated. If we go down the road of legislation like this cap and trade bill...

Sargent asks:

Right, but who, exactly, is doing the disputing and the debating here?

I'd like to know that, too.

Could it be the American Association for the Advancement of Science?

No:

The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society.

That was the first sentence of their statement on climate change from February, 2007.

The World Health Organization?

No:

There is now widespread agreement that the earth is warming, due to emissions of greenhouse gases caused by human activity.

That's from the Summary their 2008 report "Protecting Health from Climate Change."

How about NASA? Any dispute there?

No:

Most scientists agree the main cause of the current global warming trend is human expansion of the "greenhouse effect" -- warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space.

And:

In its recently released Fourth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations, concluded there's a more than 90 percent probability that human activities over the past 250 years have warmed our planet.

And don't even try to use the word "Climategate" here. THAT was the hoax.

Anyway, do I need to do this again? Ok one more.

How about the National Academy of Science? Any dispute there?

No:

A strong, credible body of scientific evidence shows that climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems, concludes this panel report from the America's Climate Choices suite of studies.

Can someone ask Congressman Toomey where the dispute is? Or, in deed, what the dispute is?

I honestly thought he was smarter than this.