Senator James Inhofe, who has famously claimed global warming is a hoax, wields snowball on Senate floor to in stunt against climate change evidence

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

James Inhofe, the US senator who famously claimed that global warming was “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people”, attempted to underscore his climate denial on the Senate floor Thursday by brandishing a snowball.

“I ask the chair: do you know what this is? It’s a snowball,” said Inhofe, hefting the icy globe in his right hand, before tossing it at a Senate page.

The snowball stunt was part of a rambling speech to America’s most august deliberative body in which, among other points, Inhofe took aim at evidence by scientists that 2014 was the warmest year on record due to climate change. (According to detailed research Nasa and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, two of the top bodies of government scientists, it was.)

In 2010, during another record-breaking snowstorm, Inhofe and his grandchildren built an igloo near the Capitol building in Washington, affixing signs to it that said “Al Gore’s New Home” and “Honk If You Love Global Warming”.

Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, is chair of the Senate environment committee.

“I think it’s lovely that Senator Inhofe enjoys the winter weather so much,” said Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist and director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “I’m a winter sports fan myself. But there’s a big difference between people playing with the snow, and global climate change.”

Schmidt told the Guardian that, despite Senator Inhofe’s views, 2014 had indisputably been the warmest year on record, and January 2015 had been one of the warmest Januaries on record.

“Europe was toasty warm. Alaska was toasty warm. Australia was toasty warm. All these things cancel out the fact that it happens to be cold in Washington DC this week,” he said.

Inhofe’s office could not be reached for comment.