White House Science Advisor Dr. John Holdren more than held his own September 17 when he appeared before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology to defend the Obama Administration’s response to climate change. “As is true for all House Science committee hearings on climate change, much of the questioning focused not the content of the plan itself, but whether global warming is even real,” Atkin writes. But “Holdren is a confident speaker who was able to succinctly explain the science to his climate denying questioners despite constant interruption.” Republican committee members questioned whether carbon dioxide directly harms human health—a line of questioning that Holdren dismissed as a red herring—and whether the climate plan would be enough on its own to reduce global temperatures. “The limitation of carbon emissions in the United States is a very important first step,” Holdren explained. “If the United States does not take that sort of action, it is unlikely that other major emitters in the world—China, India, Russia, Europe, Japan—will do so either.”
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