Climate controversy: When politics, journalism, and science collide

Newt Gingrich is definitely regretting the commercial he once made with Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. It was 2008 and Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project cut the commercial, which featured former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sitting on a couch with then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“We don’t always see eye-to-eye, do we, Newt?” said Pelosi. “No,” answered Gingrich, “but we do agree– our country must take action to address climate change.”

Now, as Newt Gingrich seeks the nomination of a political party whose members are often skeptical of man-made global warming concerns, he’s not seeing so “eye-to-eye” with his adversary from across the partisan aisle any longer. Late last year, Gingrich called the commercial “The single dumbest thing I’ve done in years.” He even chucked a chapter of his book on the environment from a “conservative” perspective.

So what changed? 2011-12 Newt finds the actions of 2008 Newt completely inexplicable, superlatively “dumb” even. Between then and now, did Newt’s views on climate science change?

Read the rest of my article at IVN.us.

Wes Messamore,
Editor in Chief, THL
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