The U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants to force the Environmental Protection Agency to hold a “trial” on climate change. Characterizing it as the “Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century,” the trial would come complete with witnesses, cross-examination, and a judge to “rule” on whether human activity is contributing to dangerous climate change.
Opponents to the idea assert the idea all but abandons the scientific method, upon which modern civilization depends, in favor of what Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists says is reminiscent of “the Salem witch trials, based on myth.”
In the next few weeks the EPA plans to declare its formal endangerment finding (pdf) that greenhouse gases present a danger to public health. The Chamber of Commerce intends on challenging any such finding and the entire body of peer-reviewed science upon which the EPA’s decision is based.
EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan emphasized that the upcoming finding on global warming is based “on the soundest peer-reviewed science available, which overwhelmingly indicates that climate change presents a threat to human health and welfare.”
The hope for the Chamber of Commerce is that such a trial will subvert the established science and sow political enmity, further public confusion, and fend off any potential emissions regulations.
The Chamber fully expects the EPA to deny its request to hold science on trial, and is prepared to file suit in federal court when it does.
The EPA appears uncowed by the Chamber’s maneuvering, calling a hearing a “waste of time” and the threatened lawsuit “frivolous.”
The directors of the top science organization in the largest thirteen nations, including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, recently sent a letter to world letters urging swift action on climate change, saying, in part, that “The need for urgent action to address climate change is now indisputable.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce maintains it can cite studies that predict higher temperatures will reduce mortality rates in the United State. How or if those studies withstood the rigors of peer-review was not reported.
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About Tom Schueneman
[...] its relationship with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with Nike likely following suit, over the Chamber’s position on climate change. Since then, more companies are becoming fed up with what the Christian Science Monitor terms the [...]