Image via AP/Mandel Ngan
When Republicans in the House of Representatives put up their annotated video rebuttal to the State of the Union address, there was something missing — like the swipes that President Barack Obama took at them on climate change and a reference to torture."I've heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they're not scientists; that we don't have enough information to act," Obama said during the speech. "Well, I'm not a scientist, either. But you know what, I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and at NOAA, and at our major universities," he continued. "And the best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we don't act forcefully, we'll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration and conflict and hunger around the globe."The version posted on the House Republican website omits nearly that entire passage, leaving out everything between "dodge" and "around the globe." It also skips part of a subsequent passage, where President Obama mentioned that the Pentagon said climate change "poses immediate risks to our national security."
Advertisement
Also missing was Obama talking about values, which he called one of the pillars of US leadership. He said: "As Americans, we respect human dignity, even when we're threatened, which is why I have prohibited torture, and worked to make sure our use of new technology like drones is properly constrained. It's why we speak out against the deplorable anti-Semitism that has resurfaced in certain parts of the world."Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said the gaps in the speech were a video glitch."There were no 'edits' - just some technical issues," Steel told VICE News via e-mail. But Steel would not say when it might be replaced with a complete file, and the video remained online as environmentalists blasted the Republicans over the gaps.White House Counselor John Podesta chimed in on Twitter as well, calling it an attempt to "airbrush" history.The idea that the buildup of carbon emissions in the atmosphere is warming the planet may remain politically controversial, but it's accepted as fact by an overwhelming majority of scientists.Unbelievable. Republicans in Congress tried to censor President Obama's climate-change remarks in his — NRDC (@NRDC)January 21, 2015
Advertisement
Questions over the video emerged the same day that Senate Republicans joined Democrats in voting for a resolution that acknowledged the reality of climate change — but not the human role in it.The 16-word measure read: "It is the sense of the Senate that climate change is real and not a hoax."Senators voted 98-1 to attach it to a measure that would clear the way for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring heavy crude oil extracted from the tar sands of western Canada to refineries on the US Gulf Coast.The measure was so broad it got the vote of Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe, author of the 2012 book The Greatest Hoax: How the Climate Change Conspiracy Threatens Your Future. He told colleagues that "Climate has always changed, and it always will.""There is archaeological evidence of that, there is biblical evidence, and there is historical evidence. It will always change," Inhofe said. "The hoax is that there are some people who are so arrogant, who think that they are so powerful that they can change the climate. Man can't change the climate."Inhofe is the new chairman of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees the US Environmental Protection Agency, among other agencies.2014 VICE News awards climate change denier of the year: James Inhofe. Read more here.The sole no vote against the amendment came from Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi.Despite the near-unanimous vote on whether climate change is occurring, two other measures that would have acknowledged the scientific consensus that humans are behind it failed. One drew five Republican votes, the other 15.Follow Matt Smith on Twitter: @mattsmithatl