In his rambling concession speech after the Illinois primary Tuesday night, Rick Santorum got even wackier than usual on the issue of global warming.
Last week, my colleague Amitabh Pal noted how hidebound Santorum is on the issue of global warming. On Tuesday night, Santorum continued his anti-science tirade.
First he mocked those who take global climate change seriously.
“When times were tough and people thought, well, all this oil and gas and coal in the ground is all a source of carbon dioxide, and we can’t take that out of the ground because, well, there’s a finite supply and it could damage our environment and cause global warming, when those who profess manmade global warming and climate science convinced many, many Republicans, including two who are running for president on the Republican ticket, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, there was one who said: I know this isn’t climate science. This is political science.”
The know-nothings in his crowd cheered that line, and Santorum went on to denounce government efforts to limit global warming: “This was another attempt of those who want to take power away from you and control your access to energy, your utilization, whether it’s in your car or in your home, of energy, because they are better to make these decisions about how you use energy than you do. That’s what they believe.”
Then, in an effort to be clever, he used the expression “climate change” to score points against his leading Republican opponents.
“Unfortunately, just like in health care, Governor Romney and Speaker Gingrich went along with the ride. And guess what? When the climate changed, they changed their position. And now they’re all for drilling and they’re all for oil and gas and coal. I was for it because it was the right thing to do then; I’ll be for it tomorrow and the next day and the next day. I’m not going to change with the climate.”
Santorum is trying to make a virtue of his Flat Earth views. And he’d persecute Galileo again if he could.
If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his story “Romney May Fall Into Trap of Picking Santorum for VP."
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