A Millennial's Perspective on What a Jim Inhofe Chairmanship Could Mean

I owe many things to science.

Science has touched every facet of my life and on a broader scale has touched every facet of our existence as human beings.

It's the reason we can have clean water to drink, the reason we can enjoy a life expectancy over 40 and the reason why we are no longer left to wonder about the particles that comprise our cells and make life possible.

Science is enlightenment and science is power yet science must also be valued and respected.

Science is neither partisan nor political and it never should be.

Unfortunately denying science has become a prevalent position in this country and more critically one amongst our political leaders.

Denial that our global climate patterns are changing as direct result of human activity has become an acceptable viewpoint and even more dishearteningly a counter-view to belief in facts.

If the polls and pundits are right, next week, Democrats will likely lose control of the Senate and Senator James Inhofe (R-OK)--a man who denies climate change--will gain the chairmanship of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

This is the same man who calls the consensus of 97% of climate scientists that our planet is warming due to human activity a hoax--he's even written a book about it.

Fortunately for him, at 80 years old, Senator Inhofe will never have to live with the consequences of his actions denying science.

He will likely never see how shifting weather patterns will alter where we live, what we eat and how we adapt to water scarcity. He will likely never see the wheat crops of his native state of Oklahoma suffer as result of unpredictable rain patterns.

Senator Inhofe will be allowed to enjoy spreading incredibly dangerous rhetoric for a few more years for his political gain and will then pass leaving a struggling planet in the hands of younger generations.

This sounds awfully convenient.

I am a millennial, a staunch believer in science and I think it is a shame that this man will be given an opportunity to chair a committee whose central jurisdiction is that of science.

As the most powerful country on this planet what sort of message does it send that a man who has no interest in protecting it will be given this title? And while Senator Inhofe potentially may not even see comprehensive climate legislation come through his future committee, I think it's jarring symbolism that a man of his convictions should be granted a Chairmanship.

It shouldn't be a wishful aspiration of mine that our elected officials have regard for the condition of the planet they are leaving my generation--it is the right thing to do.

If the term "climate change" is too controversial then let's not use it.

Let us simply, as citizens of this Earth, accept the conclusions of science as we have been doing for millennia.

Our political differences should not cloud our judgment that this planet is warming and changing, their role will come to play when we must determine how to deal with the ramifications of this phenomenon.

That will be a separate struggle, but for now let's start with holding our politicians accountable to science and not its denial.

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