| May 6, 2010 |  |
Rep. Doyle Creatively Factchecks Rep. Shimkus on Climate Science
On April 28, members of the House Energy and Commerce committee engaged in some of their own entertaining fact-checking during a hearing on "Clean Energy Policies That Reduce Our Dependence on Oil."
Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) thought he had Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson cornered when he asked her how much of the Earth's atmosphere is comprised of human-created heat-trapping emissions. He said the percentage is extremely low and that he was shocked that the EPA found such a small amount of carbon dioxide and other gases could threaten human health.
Administrator Jackson explained that even though the volume of human-produced heat-trapping emissions in the atmosphere is small compared with the total volume of the atmosphere, the gases are powerful heat trappers and are changing the climate. In fact, carbon dioxide levels today are more than 40 percent higher than they were before the Industrial Revolution because burning coal and oil and destroying forests is overloading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide.
Later in the hearing, Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) came up with a clever analogy to explain why Shimkus' thinking on the subject was wrong. Unfortunately, Rep. Shimkus had already left the room. A partial video of the exchange and the full transcript is below.
Rep. Shimkus: Administrator, what is the percent of the Earth's atmosphere that greenhouse gases make up?
Jackson: Well, it depends on how you define greenhouse gases.
Rep. Shimkus: Okay, you define it.
Jackson: EPA's endangerment finding includes six gases.
Shimkus: Well, what's the percentage?
Jackson: Well, I have some…
Shimkus: It is 2 [percent]! Two percent of the entire Earth's atmosphere is greenhouse gases. You know it the major percentage of what makes up greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere?
Jackson: I'm thinking water.
Shimkus: Water vapor. And do you know what percentage?
Jackson: 30 percent, maybe.
Shimkus: No, a little higher.
Jackson: I'm not going to guess. Why don't you tell me?
Shimkus: 95 percent. So of the 2 percent of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, you know how much is man-made greenhouse gases which is why we're trying to say is endangering the public health.
Another member: Will the gentleman yield?
Shimkus: No I will not. It is 2 percent of 2 percent. 0.28 percent of the entire Earth's atmosphere is what we're debating here.
Shimkus: ...and that's 0.28 percent of the Earth's atmosphere?
Jackson: But we're talking about…
Shimkus: Yes or no. Is that 0.28 percent of the Earth's atmosphere?
Jackson: I'll certainly verify. It's certainly a very low number volumetrically.
Shimkus: It's extremely low.
Jackson: But it's not from a global…
Shimkus interrupted Jackson again.
Later in the hearing, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) allowed Jackson to challenge the premise of Shimkus' question. She said, "It may not be much of the volume, but its potential ... to warm the atmosphere, to change our climate is much much higher than its volume in the atmosphere."
Later, Rep. Doyle spoke.
Doyle: I wonder, Mr. Chairman, if you know what percentage of your blood is made of platelets?
Markey: No I don't.
Doyle: It's about 3 to 7 percent of our blood cells. But without that small percent a small cut would cause you to bleed to death. Did you know that Mr. Chairman?
Markey: I knew I could bleed to death, but I didn't realize it was from such a small percentage of my body could cause such a dramatic change in my overall well being.
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