Clinton: Denying Climate Change Makes U.S. 'Look Like a Joke'

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Adam Clark Estes 19,609 Views Sep 20, 2011

The Clinton Global Initiative fired up their seventh annual meeting in New York City, and Bill Clinton had a few opening remarks. "If you're an American, the best thing you can do is to make it politically unacceptable for people to engage in denial," said Clinton to a crowd that will hear from over fifty heads of state in the next three days. "I mean, it makes us--we look like a joke, right? You can't win the nomination of one of the major parties in the country if you admit that the scientists are right? That disqualifies you from doing it? You could really help us there."

Pundits are reading Clinton's jab at climate-denying candidates as a slap in the faces of Republican presidential candidates. Try swapping out Clinton's use of "you" with the name of a 2012 hopeful like "Rick Perry." Now pick a scientist that Perry will use as crutch to hobble his way towards a misguided point about how science is a historically flawed discipline. Maybe Copernicus?

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