Bloomberg: "Mind boggling" GOP candidates don't believe in science
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday let off some steam about the Republican presidential field, complaining that some candidates are skeptical of the science surrounding issues like global warming.
"We have presidential candidates who don't believe in science," Bloomberg said at a Columbia University economic forum, the New York Daily News reports. "I mean, just think about it, can you imagine a company of any size in the world where the CEO said 'oh I don't believe in science' and that person surviving to the end of that day? Are you kidding me? It's mind-boggling!"
The mayor declined to say which specific candidates he was talking about. "I don't know," he said. "You can check the presidential candidates' speeches."
Most of the GOP field has expressed skepticism about the significance of man-made global warming.
"I don't believe global warming is real," Herman Cain told Hotsheet in June. "Do we have climate change? Yes. Is it a crisis, no."
Mitt Romney, who has taken flack for his remarks on the issue, said at a Pittsburgh event last week, "My view is that we don't know what's causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us."
As recently as June, Romney seemed more open to the idea of man-made global warming: "I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that," he said at a New Hampshire event.Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman separated himself from the field when he challenged Texas Gov. Rick Perry's global warming skepticism in September, saying the GOP "can't run from science."
Bloomberg himself was often held up as a possible 2012 candidate, but the Republican-turned-independent governor insisted last year that he could never win as a third-party candidate.
