'Greedy, selfish, self-serving': GOP senator blasted for 'taking comfort' in global warming

The late talk radio host Rush Limbaugh was a major climate change denier, repeatedly claiming that global warming was a "hoax." And he also argued that if climate change were a reality, it would be a good thing because it would mean more agriculture in Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Norway. Limbaugh neglected to mention, however, that if sea levels rise considerably because of climate change, a long list of coastal cities — from Miami to New York City to Malaga, Spain — will, according to scientists, be in trouble.

Limbaugh, who also denied that cigarette smoking was harmful, died of lung cancer in February 2021. But his argument that climate change could have a beneficial side hasn't gone away. And far-right Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) made some pro-climate change arguments during a Senate Budget Committee hearing on Wednesday, April 26, claiming that apart from areas of Africa, "global warming" would be "beneficial."

Johnson told Dr. Michael Gladstone — a University of Chicago economics professor who testified during the hearing — "In terms of excess deaths, a warming globe is actually beneficial.... In my own state, we'd have a reduction mortality…. Why wouldn't we take comfort in that?"

Gladstone replied, "The effects of climate change are going to be very unequal… There's large swaths of the country where the damages will be much larger."

But Johnson tried to spin a Lancet study to show that climate change would do much more good than harm, citing "deaths caused by cold" rather than heat.

Johnston told Gladstone, "You're concerned if you're in the really hot region of Africa, but in terms of the United States and most of Europe, we're in pretty good shape."

The Wisconsin senator is being slammed on Twitter in response to those comments.

Twitter user Gary Koepnick, @GaryKoepnick, posted, "Is he really that stupid? How the hell does he think the planet is going to compensate for the rising temperature? Problem is he doesn't care that flooding will be devastating for Midwest farmland 50 from now because his greedy selfish self serving a** will be dead."

@Electricboyo argued, "Hey Ron: What if the weather gets so bad that it kills 1/2 of us? I suppose that's OK with you if it doesn't kill your supporters?"

@18TruckaMan wrote, "So @SenRonJohnson, according to your 3rd-grade analysis of climate change, you'd be ok with our Southern & Atlantic states slowly consumed by the Atlantic & CA by the Pacific? So long as the dairy cows of Wisconsin don't get their cloven hoofs wet, do I have that right?"