May 05, 2016 02:55 PM UTC

Rep. J. Paul "Cletus" Brown Takes on Climate Change

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Durango Herald’s Peter Marcus reports, Rep. J. Paul Brown of Ignacio decided to go on the record about climate change during a debate about legislation to regulate greenhouse gases.

He should have kept his mouth shut:

Republican state Rep. J. Paul Brown encouraged fellow lawmakers on Tuesday to see “Climate Hustle,” a “global warming comedy” that critics say foolishly emboldens climate change skeptics…

The remark raised eyebrows.

Later that evening, Brown told The Durango Herald that he is skeptical as to the cause of climate change.

“We continue to have climate change, I just question whether it’s man-made,” Brown said. [Pols emphasis]

ThinkProgress has a little more on the movie Climate Hustle, which as Marcus reports was shredded into bite-size pieces by ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel earlier this week (video after the jump):

On Monday evening’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, the ABC late-night host tackled something that isn’t in your average topical monologue: the scientific consensus on climate change. And he made a video featuring real climate scientists responding to climate denial in a fashion one doesn’t see in the National Academy of Sciences.

The catalyst involved a climate denier-produced movie, “Climate Hustle,” which has been called “amateurish” and “not very watchable.” Specifically what Kimmel seized on were comments former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin gave last month while promoting the movie…

“It’s perpetuated and repeated so often that too many people believe that, ‘Oh, well, if 97 percent of all scientists believe that man’s activities are creating changes in the weather, who am I to question that?’” she said.

“Exactly. Who are you to question that?” Kimmel replied…

Locals with an education agree:

“It’s an incredibly out-of-touch statement from a legislator whose district continues to have major challenges with air pollution,” said Jessica Goad, spokeswoman for Conservation Colorado. “Politicians like Rep. Brown, who flat-out deny that climate change is occurring, risk their own credibility, especially in the eyes of voters.”

The issue could play out during Brown’s re-election bid this year against retired Durango teacher Barbara McLachlan, who responded: “When did science become a belief system?”

The answer to that question is simple: before science, everything was a “belief system.”

But today, we have science. Most of us, anyway.