McConnell Most Responsible for Climate Change

Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell was first elected to the United States Senate in 1984. After serving five terms, he was re-elected to a sixth in 2014. He steadily rose the ranks to various leadership positions:

National Republican Senatorial Committee | 1998 – 2000
Majority Whip | 2003 – 2005, 108th Congress
Minority Leader | 2006 – 2014
Majority Leader | 2014 – present

The global temperature in 1984, when McConnell was first elected, was 14.10 Celsius / 57.38 Fahrenheit. During the thirty-four years since then, the global temperature has risen to approximately 14.8 Celsius / 58.64 Fahrenheit, more than half of one full degree. Numerous urgent international global warming warnings have spanned the past three plus decades; McConnell was present for every single one of these. In his leadership capacity, McConnell had the unmistakable, repeated opportunity to rally support and Legislative action to curb the rise in global temperature, but he chose to shun responsibility, bury his head in the sand and aggressively promote the fossil fuel industry. His campaigns have received a stunning $2,151,444 from Oil & Gas industries.

Timeline of Global Warming Warnings During McConnell’s Tenure in the Senate:

1985 – Villach Conference | Consensus amongst experts, global warming inevitable, calls on governments to “consider international agreements to take action to restrict emissions”
1987 – Montreal Protocol of the Vienna Convention | “imposes international restrictions on emissions of ozone-destroying gases”
1988 – Toronto Conference | “calls for strict, specific limits on greenhouse gas emissions; UK Prime Minister Thatcher is first major leader to call for action”
1989 – Global Climate Coalition established | created by “fossil-fuel and other U.S. industries to tell politicians and the public that climate science is too uncertain to justify action”
1990 – First IPCC Report | “world has been warming and future warming is likely”
1992 – Rio de Janeiro Conference | “produces UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, but U.S. blocks calls for serious action”
1995 – Second IPCC Report | “detects ‘signature’ of human-caused greenhouse effect warming”
1997 – Kyoto Protocol | “setting targets for industrialized nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (rejected by U.S. senate in advance)”
2000 – Global Climate Coalition dissolves | “as many corporations grapple with threat of warming, but Oil lobby convinces U.S. administration to deny problem”
2001 – Third IPCC Report | “global warming, unprecedented since the end of the last ice age, is ‘very likely,’ with highly damaging future impacts”
2004 – “First major books, movie, and art work featuring global warming appear”
2005 – Kyoto Treaty | “signed by major industrial nations except U.S.”
2006 – “An Inconvenient Truth” documentary | “persuades many but sharpens polarization”
2007 – Fourth IPCC Report | “warns that serious effects of warming have become evident”
2009 – Copenhagen Conference | “fails to negotiate binding agreements,” hopes fade of “avoiding dangerous future climate change”
2015 – Paris Agreement | 196 nations/state parties “pledge to set targets for their own greenhouse gas dust and to report their progress” | McConnell sends letter “urging states not to comply with EPA’s Clean Power Plan”
2017 – McConnell succeeds at urging Trump to pull United States out of Paris Agreement
2018 – Katowice Climate Change Conference COP24 | “leaders reach deal bolstering Paris Agreement,” but not United States, “U.S. held event promoting fossil fuels“

In a stunning rebuke of the 800 million people across the globe who are impacted by global warming, McConnell has consistently corralled his senate colleagues, and now the current president, to maintain staunch opposition to the science behind the global warming warnings. Despite the scientific facts, and the yearly physical proof that climate change is a reality, McConnel persists at denying the research and guidance of experts, and plows forward with legislating in conflict with the damaging impact of climate change reality.

Unfortunately, McConnell’s thirty-four years representing Kentucky in DC have not proven to be a career of public service, but rather of self-service. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost, and many millions are at stake.