A Kansas House committee weighed a resolution Thursday that urges Congress to resist following President Barack Obama’s plan for addressing climate change.
The nonbinding resolution is before the House Energy and Environment Committee. It declares that the federal goals for addressing climate change are based on false assumptions about the role of carbon dioxide and human activity.
Supporters of the resolution said they doubt that human-caused climate change even exists, despite a body of scientific research that suggests it does.
"The only thing you know for sure about the weather in Kansas, as you all know, is it’s going to change," said Sen. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona. "That’s all we really know about climate too.”
Environmentalists argued that the House Resolution 6043 is based on bad science and ignores data that emissions and humans are altering sea levels and weather patterns.
Zack Pistora, a lobbyist from the Kansas Sierra Club, said "nearly unanimous scientific opinion that climate change is from humans."
"A search of peer-reviewed scientific articles on climate change show that only 24 of 13,950 peer-reviewed articles rejected human-caused global warming," Pistora said. "Also, a growing number of professional and scientific organizations, including our American armed forces, have both acknowledged the climate problem and the need for climate action."
Other opponents of the resolution included various private citizens, including a school teacher who called the hearing a waste of tax money and Kansas Interfaith Power and Light, a group of environmentalist religious leaders.
“Putting your fingers in your ears and humming is not an option," Rabbi Moti Rieber said. "I’d encourage you to stop doing it.”
Rep. Dennis Hedke, R-Wichita, who organized the hearing as chairman of the energy and environment committee, testified in support of the resolution, turning down the lights to display graphs and pictures, including one he said showed air temperature warming has slowed.
Charles Rice, a Kansas State University professor of soil microbiology who has researched global climate change's effect on soil and the potential benefits of carbon sequestration, said evidence for humans effecting climate continues to build.
“The heat buildup is still continuing, but it’s not showing up in the air temperature, it’s showing up in the ocean," Rice said. "Over time that could be released back into the atmosphere.”
The House resolution cites Obama’s 2013 plan that calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and encourages development of renewable forms of energy.
Knox said he had "history" with the issue as a mechanical engineering student who worked on thermal sciences at Kansas State.
He said condescending climate change "alarmists" have rarely deigned to even address the questions of "skeptics" and said the issue needs a debate like the one that recently occurred regarding evolution vs. creationism at the Creationism Museum in Kentucky.
"Climate alarmism is not based on science, it's based on computer models," Knox said, adding those models often have proven wrong.
He said arguments for climate change are "political in nature" and warned that emerging economies like China and India won’t act to curb fossil fuel emissions.
"They're not going to sabotage their economies, their growth," Knox said.
Other supporters of the resolution included Rep. Ron Highland, R-Wamego, the Kansas Independent Oil and Gas Association, Richard Ranzau on behalf of the Sedgwick County and James Taylor on behalf of the Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank from Chicago that is connected to the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Ranzau also spoke against Obamacare, President Barack Obama's federal health care reforms, and "meatless Mondays," a short-lived U.S. Department of Agriculture advertising program that recommended going without eating meat one day a week.
Ranzau said the meatless Monday effort hurt Kansas ranchers, but at least one farming group turned out against the House resolution.
Nick Levendofsky, of the Kansas Farmers Union, said his group and its national parent organization "are concerned about the effects of climate change" and support further research into it.
In his written testimony, Levendofsky quoted National Farmers Union president Roger Johnson as applauding Obama's plan to address climate change.
"Farmers are going to be one of the first groups to suffer as extreme weather phenomena multiply with dire results for our capacity to feed our population," Johnson said. "We cannot afford to waste more time. American needs to act now to ensure a sustainable future for agriculture both here and around the world."