Leaders in the Conservative Political Action Committee like Karl Rove, Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul have united with Tea Party activists like Sarah Palin and GOP leaders like Senator Mitch McConnell to call for outlaw climate change monitoring and research and to criminalize climate change reporting.
The conservative coalition was angered by reports of the United Nations' official weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization, study that announced record low levels of Arctic sea ice. The WMO study cataloged the increasing temperature of the planet, and the rising sea levels, as well as worsening severity of droughts and cyclones. The report noted "a disturbing sign of climate change" and stated that data "confirm that warming will continue."
Former Alaska Governor and GOP Vice-presidential candidate Palin commented that "these kinds of reports affirm the liberal agenda of destroying the economy." Her comments were echoed by conservative talk-show personality Ann Coulter who attacked the "radical-liberal-progressive scientific community that just wants to take away our freedoms." Coulter equated climate change reporting with terrorism and demanded that climatologists and climate reporters be branded as "enemy combatants" just like the Boston bombing Tsarnaev brothers. "These climate change reports," Coulter stated,"are just like a shrapnel bomb at the finish line of our great American economic marathon."
In a show of unity, Senators McConnell, Rubio, and Cruz appeared at a press conference to announce they will introduce legislation to make climate change research a federal felony with penalties of up to 20 years in prison for "studying, measuring, or theorizing about global warming, the effects of greenhouse gases, sea level increases, or drought and hurricanes." "We've got to stop the terrorist scientists," said Cruz, who also announced that "over 75% of American university climatologists are members of the UN conspiracy." Asked about enhanced interrogation techniques for the climatologists, Senator McConnell stated, "I see no reason not to apply the same methods to terrorist climatologists that are used on Al Qaeda terrorists. If our Justice Department and Defense Department deem it necessary to waterboard these scientists to uncover their membership in a global conspiracy, then it's up to Congress to provide our defenders with the tools they need to do their job of protecting the American economy and Americans."
