Ex-GOP Sen. Tom Coburn: Up to 75 percent of scientists think climate change is a hoax
Former Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn (R), a frequent denier of climate science, on Wednesday said that the Paris Climate Agreement was created by "emotional" liberals.
Following the news that President Donald Trump would likely pull out of the Paris agreement, Coburn told Fox Business host Stuart Varney that the accord was unfair to the United States.
"The studies right now would tell you that we're not warming right now," Coburn insisted.
"Really?" Varney replied. "What's this, 'Nine-nine percent of all the scientists [believe in man-made climate change]?'"
"If you go and poll, what does the actual data say? I don't think you'll see 99 percent," Coburn said. "You may see 75-25. You may see 25-75. You don't know that. Nobody knows because we have had this political mantra out there that say that if you doubt what we said, you're a flat Earther."
"You know, I went into the Congress in 1995 and they told me the same thing, the oceans are rising," he continued. "Here we are some 22 years later, right? And what's the difference? One millimeter? Two millimeters?"
"Is that it?" Varney wondered.
"I don't know," Coburn admitted. "But the fact is we have not seen a major encroachment. The ice storage in Antarctica is greater than it's ever been. They had more ice this year in the Arctic than we've seen in 30 years. So, tell me where this is."
According to Coburn, the Paris agreement was an "emotional and reactive" response that did not take into account "all the facts."
"I'm just a skeptic," he remarked. "I've actually read all of it while I was a U.S. senator. I read all the science. I read everything that was out there. I don't agree."
The National Ocean Service at NOAA reports that the global sea level average in 2014 "was 2.6 inches [66 millimeters] above the 1993 average."
The global sea level average "continues to rise at a rate of about one-eighth of an inch per year," the report notes.
Watch the video below from Fox Business.