At UC Irvine Commencement, Obama Attacks Climate Change Deniers

Obama Knocks Climate Change Deniers: Like Telling JFK the Moon’s ‘Made of Cheese’ (Mediaite)

During a commencement address at UC Irvine, President Barack Obama outlined a new $1 billion competitive fund to encourage cities to develop their infrastructure in advance of the effects of climate change, and criticized those who still disputed the environmental phenomenon.

“It’s pretty rare that you’ll encounter somebody who says the problem you’re trying to solve simply doesn’t exist,” Obama said. “When President Kennedy set us on a course to the moon, there were a number of people who made a serious case that it wouldn’t be worth it. But nobody ignored the science. I don’t remember anybody saying the moon wasn’t there or that it was made of cheese.”

Obama also said efforts to deny the science were cloaks for electoral queasiness: “They say, ‘Hey, look, I’m not a scientist.’ And I’ll translate that for you: what that really means is, ‘I know that manmade climate change really is happening but if I admit it, I’ll be run out of town by a radical fringe that thinks climate science is a liberal plot.’”