Jeb Bush: People Who Claim Climate Change Is Man-Made Are ‘Really Arrogant’

Jeb Bush, apparently seeking to change the subject from his disastrous flip-flops on the Iraq War, has now decided that he’ll wade into the matter of climate change. Unfortunately for him, however, what he said on that issue didn’t exactly make him look more Presidential.

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Image Via Flickr

Speaking at an event in New Hampshire Wednesday evening, Bush admitted that climate change is indeed happening, but then added:

“Look, first of all, the climate is changing. I don’t think the science is clear what percentage is man-made and what percentage is natural. It’s convoluted. And for the people to say the science is decided on, this is just really arrogant, to be honest with you.”

Oh by all means, please be “honest” with us, Jeb. Especially since it appears honesty isn’t something that you excel at.

The real reason for Bush’s remarks on climate change? So he could take cheap shots at President Obama, who made a claim earlier in the day that the issue threatens our national security:

“If the President thinks this is the gravest threat to our national security, it seems like he would say, ‘let’s expand LNG (liquefied natural gas) as fast as we can to get it into the hands of higher carbon-intense economies like China and other places. Let’s figure out ways to use compressed natural gas for replacing importing diesel fuel, which has a higher carbon footprint.'”

Bush said he believed the solution to the climate change problem was providing incentives for other forms of energy production such as hydraulic fracking and horizontal drilling:

“Just generally I think as conservatives we should embrace innovation, embrace technology, embrace science. … Sometimes I sense that we pull back from the embrace of these things. We shouldn’t.”

Yes, we definitely need lots more fracking because it’s so safe and never causes things like water pollution or seismic events.

Holly Shulman, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) responded to Governor Bush with this statement:

“Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that human activity has led to climate change. Ninety-seven percent. But Jeb Bush thinks they’re wrong. Who’s being intellectually arrogant now?”