GOP Lawmaker’s Inane Climate-Denying Remark Gets Critics Fired Up
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) assured everyone the climate crisis is not a thing because it was pretty cold on Halloween, prompting a collective eye-roll on social media.
“You know, we may have had a hot summer, but I just went trick or treating with my kids and it was like, you know, the low that evening was 29 degrees, so temperatures change, alright? Temperatures have been changing for the millennia,” Ogles said during a House debate on the 2024 Interior-Environment spending bill.
He made the remark after criticizing “climate alarmism” and the “burden” it puts on the fossil fuel industry, prompting a Democrat, Rep. Chellie Pingree (Maine), to note that “we just had the hottest summer on record.”
Ogles: We may have had a hot summer but I just went trick or treating with my kids and the low that evening was 29 degrees so temperatures change. Temperatures have been changing for a millennia pic.twitter.com/W2qiL2Fp9b
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 3, 2023
Republicans have repeatedly conflated climate with the weather and seasons to dispute global warming.
In September, Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) said that “farmers in my district recognize climate change as summer, winter, spring, and fall.” Her colleague, Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.), quipped a week earlier that the climate was changing to “autumn” during a debate about carbon emissions.
Seasons, of course, are part of the yearly cycle affected by the Earth’s position in relation to the sun.
Climate change refers to large-scale, long-term shifts in weather patterns and temperatures across the globe. Human industrialization and greenhouse gas emissions have led to a rise in the Earth’s surface temperature, prompting side effects like increasingly frequent extreme weather events, drought and rising sea levels.
Ogles’ remark had critics heated on social media:
Rep. Andy Ogles thinks climate change is no big deal because it was hot last summer and cold the other night when he took his kids trick-or-treating. https://t.co/LO8OUViTWN
— Mark Jacob (@MarkJacob16) November 3, 2023
And here we have @andyogles demonstrating just how badly Tennessee's education system failed him.
— Michael VanDeMar (@mvandemar) November 3, 2023
I can’t believe we’re still stuck on “Global warming isn’t real because sometimes it’s cold”.
— SnarkTank (@TheSnarkTank99) November 3, 2023
We are two weeks away from a government shutdown and the @HouseGOP is using floor time to deny the laws of physics. (As I type this, Ogles has moved on to arguing against masks as ways to prevent communicable disease.) https://t.co/ksLunNQhVd
— Sean Casten (@SeanCasten) November 3, 2023
"It wasn't hot on Halloween so obviously climate change is a hoax."🙄🤦♀️ https://t.co/fc9ntY5HNN
— Khashoggi’s Ghost 🇺🇦🌻 (@UROCKlive1) November 3, 2023
It’s almost as if one doesn’t need to possess any real intelligence or have any sort of grasp on factual information to serve in the Congress. https://t.co/miPQ0yiRbK
— Terry Kinney🎸🎬 (@RealTerryKinney) November 3, 2023
We joke, but “If climate change is real, why do we still have winter?” is really all they have. https://t.co/p1Ilc2edGP
— Evan Robertson (@evanrobertsonDC) November 3, 2023
In this day and age, I just can’t believe we *STILL* have people proudly stuck saying “it can’t be “gLoBaL wArMiNg” because it was cold where I live, my tiny little spec on the planet, today.”
Gotta look at the bigger picture, folks
🤦🏻♂️ https://t.co/tbUHOef1Cw— Brad Carl (@DCBradCarl) November 3, 2023