Climate change benefits are ignored: Republican science chairman

The chairman of the House Science Committee, Texas Representative Lamar Smith

The Republican science chairman at the US House of Representatives has praised what he refers to as the positive impacts of climate change for agriculture.

“While it is indisputable that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is gradually increasing, this does not automatically justify all of the alarmists’ claims,” Texas Representative Lamar Smith, an outspoken skeptic of climate science, wrote in a commentary for the Heritage Foundation's Daily Signal on Monday.

This is while many of the Republicans deny the existence of climate change with human causes altogether.

“Our climate is too complex and the consequences of misguided policies too harsh to discount the positive effects of carbon enrichment,” Smith said, adding that the “benefits of a changing climate are often ignored and under-researched.”

He further referred to some of the scientifically proven impacts of the climate change, extolling them for their benefits.

Photosynthesis is strengthened by higher carbon dioxide concentrations, he argued, asserting that the warmer the globe becomes, growing seasons would increase.

The Republican also hailed the economic growth caused by fossil fuels and stated that melting ice in the Arctic is about open up shipping channels.

“Fossil fuels have helped raise the standard of living for billions of people. Furthermore, research has shown that regions that have enjoyed a major reduction in poverty achieved these gains by expanding the use of fossil fuels for energy sources,” he wrote.

Scientists argue that most of the globe is set to experience declining agricultural returns in the wake of climate change.

Although melting ice can open newly-open routes but it is also the cause of icebergs, a challenge for the shipping industry.

Under President Donald Trump, the US has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement, which was negotiated by representatives of 195 countries in Paris and went into effect on November 4, 2016 as part of a global effort to tackle the warming of the planet.

Trump’s decision has provoked furious backlash from the signatories of the accord and caused protests in the US.