As the "son of two mathematicians and computer programmers," Ted Cruz claims to be all for policy following science; he just doesn't think the data is pointing toward climate change.
In an interview with NPR hosts Steven Inskeep and David Greene published Wednesday, the Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate called climate change the "perfect pseudoscientific theory for a big government politician who wants more power." Then he explained why: "The scientific evidence doesn't support global warming," Cruz told Inskeep. "For the last 18 years, the satellite data — we have satellites that monitor the atmosphere. The satellites that actually measure the temperature showed no significant warming whatsoever."
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First, he's selectively using one type of data over others. Second, he's starting his analysis with a single warm temperature year — 1998 — rather looking at the aggregate temperatures of multiple years (or decades). [The Washington Post]
The fact that NASA data shows this century holds nine out of 10 of the warmest years ever, for instance, seems not to have made the deft debater's cut.
You can read Cruz's full interview over at NPR.
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