Bravo, Scott Starin

Colorado Independent » Polis opponent Starin says climate change not caused by man

Echoing his party’s vice-presidential nominee, Republican congressional candidate Scott Starin Wednesday told The Colorado Independent he does not believe global climate change is caused by man.

Starin, a Lafayette aerospace engineer who’s running against Boulder Democrat Jared Polis for the 2nd Congressional District seat being vacated by Mark Udall, sounded a lot like Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who said during her recent vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden that she was uncertain of man’s role and that cyclical weather patterns may be responsible.

“Anybody who claims to know the answer on that is either not being scientific or they’re basing their opinions on popular consensus,” Starin said. “There’s a lot of evidence that suggests climate change is not due to carbon emissions.”

Of course, there’s a lot of evidence, especially in recent years, that global warming is caused by carbon emissions from the ongoing burning of fossil fuels, including reports by the National Academy of Sciences and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Pressed on the issue, Starin, who supports stepped-up oil and gas drilling on Colorado’s Western Slope and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, clarified and cited a recent set of questions posed by Dr. Richard Keen, a climatology professor at the University of Colorado.

“It doesn’t matter whether I believe in it or not, and if you want to know, I do not believe that climate change is due to manmade carbon emissions,” Starin said. “And it just so happens that the climatologist professor at Colorado University agrees with me.”