Stewart Pokes Fun at those Poking Fun at Climate Change

Earlier this week, two of Capitol Hill’s most vehement global warming critics — Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and James DeMint (R-S.C.) — had a good laugh at the expense of former Vice President and global warming crusader Al Gore and others who say climate change is real and could affect the planet in disastrous ways.

Inhofe, the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, posted pictures on his Facebook page of the 6-foot-tall igloo his daughter, Molly Rapert, her husband, Jimmy, and their children built near the US Capitol building after Washington DC’s recent record-breaking snowstorm, which they adorned with a sign saying “Honk If You Heart Global Warming” on one side “Al Gore’s New Home” on the other.

DeMint Tweeted on Feb. 8 that “It’s going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries ‘uncle.’”

When environmentalists fired back and pundits and others including Keith Olbermann, the host of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” called Inhofe’s family the “worst” in the world, Inhofe told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on Feb. 11 that “some people just can’t take a joke.”

Well, Jon Stewart and The Daily Show cast sure hope that Inhofe, DeMint and other climate change deniers can, in fact, take a joke. With the words “Unusually Large Snowstorm” in the background, Stewart opened a humorous segment on his Feb. 10 show saying, “It’s easy to forget that these snowstorms still do bring joy to two types of people: children and global warming deniers.”

Stewart and the cast were mocking the fact that some people seem to be ignoring warnings from the world’s top scientists — and the federal government in its sweeping 2009 Climate Change Report in 2009: that the planet is heating up because of greenhouse gas emissions.

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However, what many fail to acknowledge is that besides heat waves, drought, massive hurricanes and other forms of extreme weather, one of the long-held effects of global warming is, yes, snow — and lots of it — because warmer air holds more moisture.

As top scientists have said for years, weather fluctuations are a big part of global warming, the US Global Change Research Program states in the report. “At both the global and national scales, year-to-year fluctuations in natural weather and climate patterns can produce a period that does not follow the long-term trend. Thus, each year will not necessarily be warmer than every year before it, though the warming trend continues.”

Besides Stewart, Olbermann and hundreds of bloggers, environmental groups including StopGlobalWarming.org came forward this week, saying that “Climate deniers like Inhofe and DeMint are willfully missing the point: Extreme weather is climate change! Not only does "Snowpocalypse" not disprove global warming, it actually matches scientific predictions that climate change will increase extreme weather events of many kinds, including heavy snowfalls in regions like the Northeast.”

On Feb. 9, Inhofe’s press secretary, Matt Dempsey, told CNSNews.com that the senator knew that his family planned to build the igloo and post the signs. “Absolutely, I think the senator was out there with them,” said Dempsey. “I would have to double check. But no, he was happy to have them do that. It’s just disappointing that more of the liberal blogs don’t seem to have a sense of humor about this,” he said. “This was done in good fun.”

We’re looking forward to The Daily Show’s next dispatch on global warming …