U of U Professors Push Back Against Legislators’ Climate Change Denial

02.16.2010 by Whittney Evans

(KCPW News) Scientists and University of Utah professors are urging Utah lawmakers to treat global warming as an imminent threat to society. A conference was held on campus last week in response to legislation that urges the Environmental Protection Agency not to regulate carbon emissions. Professor Hans G. Ehrbar, who organized the conference, says the people of Utah are not well served by political leaders who stick their heads in the sand.

“They want the person who has only a superficial knowledge about these things, they want those people to think that there is doubt about climate change and they pretend that they think there is doubt about climate change in order to get those people on board,” he said.

The resolution recently passed by the House of Representatives questions the accuracy of climate change data and says there’s a “conspiracy.”

But Ehrbar says legislators aren’t scientists, which is why it’s important to learn more about climate change.

“It is our mission as a university of higher education to educate people,” he said.  “And that people are so easily confused, this is our failure.  We have to start doing something, not only just pretending we don’t know that there’s a danger.  There is a danger.”

The resolution, HJR 12, will now be considered in the Utah Senate, where it’s sponsored by Majority Leader Scott Jenkins.