Obama hits out at climate 'naysayers'

US President Barack Obama on Friday hit out at naysayers he blamed for peddling "cynical" claims that global warming is a myth to derail a landmark climate change bill in Congress. Obama warned that the closer the Senate came to passing legislation which has already cleared the House of Representatives, the more opponents would resort to underhand tactics.
"The naysayers, the folks who would pretend that this is not an issue, they are being marginalized," Obama warned in a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"But I think it's important to understand that the closer we get, the harder the opposition will fight and the more we'll hear from those whose interest or ideology run counter to the much needed action that we're engaged in.
"There are those who will suggest that moving toward clean energy will destroy our economy," Obama said, a day after the release of a poll showing fewer Americans see solid evidence of global warming.
"There are going to be those who... make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change, claims whose only purpose is to defeat or delay the change that we know is necessary."
Climate legislation was introduced in the Senate only at the end of September, three months after the House passed its version of the bill.
Prospects for the legislation are uncertain, but in recent weeks some prominent Republicans have signaled they will support the move to cut US emissions and introduce a cap and trade system for polluters.
Administration officials have already warned that the legislation will not pass before a UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December -- a delay hampering hopes of a major new international treaty to combat global warming.
Obama argued that the fight against climate change was not just necessary for the health of the planet, but should also spur a new range of green jobs and technologies that could unleash economic growth and promote energy independence.
"From China to India, from Japan to Germany, nations everywhere are racing to develop new ways to produce and use energy," he said.
"The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy, I am convinced of that, and I want America to be that nation."
Obama, who reversed the global warming skepticism of the previous Bush administration, made his remarks a day after a new poll showed the number of Americans who believe climate change is real had fallen in the last year.
The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found 57 percent of Americans see "solid evidence of warming," compared to 71 percent in April 2008, and 77 percent in August 2007.
The increase in the number of Americans with doubts about climate change came across the political spectrum, though it was particularly pronounced among independents.