Global Warming Called 'Hoax' By Senator

George W. Bush's White House has been charged repeatedly with using its influence to undermine environmental protection. The Senate confirmation hearing on Bush's nomination of Utah Governor Michael Leavitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency provided another forum for scrutinizing Bush's environmental record, according to the New York Times. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chair James Inhofe (R-OK) firmly denied environmentalists' claims as baseless, at one point saying the concept of global warming "could be the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," the Times reports. The same day the Times reported on the disintegration of an ancient Arctic ice shelf. "[Researchers] said it was not yet possible to say whether the melting was related to rising atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases from human activities. But they added that the breakup was just one of many signs of enormous climate shifts in the Arctic that merited careful monitoring," the Times reports.