Rick Santorum Global Warming Denial: ‘I Never Bought the Hoax’

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum has touted himself as the staunch conservative to Republican primary voters, and when it comes to the environment his views are informed by his Christian faith, or rather his interpretation of it.

We were put on this Earth as creatures of God to have dominion over the Earth, to use it wisely and steward it wisely, but for our benefit, not for the Earth's benefit, Santorum told an audience in Colorado last week, according to the Colorado Independent.

Santorum has argued that climate change is beyond human control, and any attempts to mitigate it are part of a left-wing political agenda.

[Climate change] is an absolute travesty of scientific research that was motivated by those who, in my opinion, saw this as an opportunity to create a panic and a crisis for government to be able to step in and even more greatly control your life, he said.

I for one never bought the hoax. I for one understand just from science that there are one hundred factors that influence the climate. To suggest that one minor factor of which man's contribution is a minor factor in the minor factor is the determining ingredient in the sauce that affects the entire global warming and cooling is just absurd on its face.

He also went on to criticize cap-and-trade schemes--which place finite limits on carbon emissions in the form of credits that must be traded between carbon producers--and his fellow Republican candidates, singling out Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney for their previous positions in support of them.

We have politicians running to the ramparts--unfortunately politicians who happen to be running for the Republican nomination for president--who bought into man-made global warming and bought into cap and trade, he said.