WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Chairman of the Environment & Public Works Committee delivered the second of four major speeches last night on the issue of climate change. Inhofe, a prominent skeptic of the science behind global warming, is engaging in a series of four speeches to debunk what he calls the “four pillars of climate change alarmism.” The second speech, given on the floor of the United States Senate, examined the 2001 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which alarmists claim supposedly provides irrefutable evidence of the global warming “consensus.” Inhofe stated today: “The media greeted the release of the IPCC’s Third Assessment Report with predictable hysteria. ‘In a report published today by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),’ blared the Independent newspaper of London, “hundreds of the world's leading scientists give their unqualified support to the view that global warming is real and that the release of man-made greenhouse gases is largely responsible.’ Moreover, the Independent reported, ‘The latest three-volume report, amounting to 2,600 pages of detailed analysis, leaves the reader in little doubt that the scientific uncertainties of the previous decade are being resolved in favor of an emerging, and increasingly pessimistic consensus. The preceding quotes, and many that followed in the Independent’s report, came from the Third Assessment’s ‘Summary for Policymakers.’ In fact, the media based much, if not all, of its reporting on the summary itself. It did this even though, in some respects, the Summary distorted the actual contents of the full report.” “It is not surprising that alarmists want to fabricate the perception that there is consensus about climate change. We know the costs of this would be enormous. Wharton Econometrics Forecasting Associates estimates that implementing Kyoto would cost an American family of four $2,700 annually. Acknowledging a full-fledged debate over global warming would undermine their agenda. And what is that agenda? Two international leaders have said it best. Margot Wallstrom, the EU’s Environment Commissioner, states that Kyoto is ‘about leveling the playing field for big businesses worldwide.’ French President Jacques Chirac said during a speech at the Hague in November 2000 that Kyoto represents ‘the first component of an authentic global governance.’” The previous speech addressed the 2001 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report summarizing the latest science of climate change, requested by the Bush Administration, which has been misused by alarmists. The remaining two speeches will address the recent report of the international Arctic Climate Impact Assessment and the data produced by climate models. The full text of Inhofe’s speech is attached and is also available with preceding speeches and whitepapers regarding Inhofe’s position on climate change at: www.epw.senate.gov