FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact Information: Representative DuBose Porter

August 22, 2007 404-656-5058

Porter says Georgia Republicans have Heads in the Sand on Global Warming

ATLANTA – Global warming doesn’t exist, at least in Georgia, according to Georgia Republican legislators like Rep. Jeff Lewis (R-Cartersville).  Lewis, who chaired a hearing ironically entitled “Climate Change: Fact or Fiction?” invited testimony from three hand-picked scientists whose work is bankrolled by the oil and coal industries.  Lewis’ hearing and its subsequent media conference happened on one of the hottest days of the year, one of a number of recent days to see triple-digit temperatures around the state.

“If you’re a farmer in South Georgia, and you’re watching your crops shrivel up before your eyes and your watering ponds evaporate, I don’t think you’ve got a lot of nice things to say about Georgia Republican ‘science,’” said Rep. Dubose Porter (D-Dublin).  “There’s no question about ‘fact or fiction,’ this is the reality for Georgia, even if Jeff Lewis and the other Georgia Republicans on this committee refuse to admit it.”

Climate change is considered by reasonable scientists to be both a reality and a serious threat.  Scientists, politicians, and average Americans have focused their attention on the problem, and voices of industry-backed spokespeople like the ones heard at the hearing are increasingly being seen as an extreme and untenable position.

“Political leaders in our neighbor states, like South Carolina and Florida, have taken steps to address this problem,” Porter said.  “By refusing to acknowledge, much less address, this problem, Georgia Republicans are burying their heads in the sand on the issue of global warming and ignoring a potential catastrophe.”

Earlier this year, a panel of over 2,000 climate scientists presented a series of catastrophic scenarios that could happen if climate change goes unaddressed.  These scenarios include massive flooding in coastal areas, agricultural failures, and stronger hurricanes and tropical storms.

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