A panel of scientists was recently commissioned to grade the scientific accuracy of statements made by presidential candidates, with Ted Cruz scoring dead last.

The eight scientists were chosen by professional scientific societies and the identities of those making the statements were removed and replaced with numbers to avoid political bias.  Of the twelve candidates fact-checked, three Democrats and nine Republicans, the scores were:

  1. Hilary Clinton (D) 94/100
  2. Martin O'Malley (D) 91/100
  3. Bernie Sanders (D) 87/100
  4. Jeb Bush (R) 64/100
  5. Chris Christie (R) 54/100
  6. John Kasich (R) 47/100
  7. Rand Paul (R) 38/100
  8. Carla Fiorina (R) 28/100
  9. Marco Rubio (R) 21/100
  10. Donald Trump (R) 15/100
  11. Ben Carson (R) 13/100
  12. Ted Cruz (R) 6/100

One of the scientists, Pennsylvania State University meteorology professor Michael Mann, was highly critical of Cruz's knowledge on climate,

This individual understands less about science (and climate change) than the average kindergartner.  That sort of ignorance would be dangerous in a doorman, let alone a president.

One statement made by Cruz that the scientists focused on was one he made back in August, saying that satellite data from the past 18 years shows no warming.  Florida State University professor James Elsner countered Cruz's statement, saying that ground data shows each decade being warmer than the last since the mid-20th century.  Federal ground-based data is considered by scientists to be more reliable than satellite data, and such data has shown 15 of the last 17 years to be hotter than that previous, with 2015 in track to beat 2014 as the hottest year on record.

via KVUE

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