eta: RoJo got WaPo'd (but he's not a "Tea Party-backed candidate").
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has published a video portion of its celebrated rap session with Fox News/Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Ron Johnson. In it, the candidate declares:
I absolutely do not believe that, y'know, the science of man-caused climate change is, uh, proven. Not by any stretch of the imagination. I think it's far more likely that it's just sunspot activity or something just in the geologic æons of time where we have changes in the climate."Something just in the geologic æons of time" is not a particularly useful alternative explanation to the scientific consensus on climate change, which lays bare Johnson's quip, "it's just sunspot activity."
That seems a fairly unequivocal statement of Ron Johnson's scientific opinion and if the past is any indication, he or his latest press secretary will be along shortly with some "clarifying" non sequitur.
Incidentally, scientific theories are never "proven." They remain always tentative and subject to adjustment according to newly discovered or differently presented evidence. E.g., the mythical Precambrian rabbit that would topple the whole edifice of biology.
As soon as somebody starts complaining that some theory or other is not "proven," run for the hills, because it's an indication that they're unfamiliar with scientific methodology itself. In which case, how can they be relied upon to informedly assess the scientific evidence?
One might just as well go ask Dick Morris.*
* Speaking of Dick Morris ...
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