The climate change wingnuts deniers of the world love to argue about global warming with talking points straight out of an insane asylum that make sense to the asylum patients but leave the rest of us shaking our heads. During a House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing early last week, the Illinois House Republican was in classic denial mode.
While questioning British global warming denier Lord Christopher Monckton, Shimkus made a novel argument that because plants need carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, limiting our man-made carbon dioxide emissions would actually kill the world’s plants. Having the government in the hands of people like this is more than disturbing…it is freakin’ crazy…go back to the asylum you nutcase. More below the fold… And like all good Christian wingnuts, he quotes from the Bible in the Subcommittee meeting that God will decide when “the earth shall end.” Rapture baby, rapture…and the wingnuts believe only they will be saved…
UPDATE: Compare the above bible thumping politics with the latest from the EPA now that real scientists have been re-instated AND with more down to earth Congressional politics such as this from California Congressman Henry Waxman… you select which sounds more plausible in the real world.
Another UPDATE This time from the House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) who quipped this advanced scientific knowledge, “Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide.” The first hint of his advanced scientific knowledge is cows give off methane not carbon dioxide…
4/25/09 Update: And the hits just keep on coming… Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN. 6th Dist.) is the queen of the right wingnuts; listen to her latest screed claiming carbon dioxide is a natural byproduct of nature and harmless. Hey Michele, how about taking a bunch of deep breaths of pure carbon dioxide and see how that works out? The global climate change deniers love their carbon dioxide. Maybe that is what makes them so wing nutty?
4/29/09 Update: Arctic CO2 levels are growing at an ‘unprecedented rate’, say scientists looking at figures from a measuring station in northern Norway showing that CO2 levels are increasing by 2-3 parts per million every year. Of course, the deniers will say we have nothing to worry about since carbon dioxide is a harmless natural gas.
5/23/09 Update: MIT modeling shows climate change odds much worse than thought… the deniers won’t cry uncle until the bodies start dropping.
Hydroponics Dictionary
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I am not a republican, but global warming is still only a theory. Even Al Gore has redacted a lot of the “proof” in his movie. To make legislation around a theory is ludicrous.
Hey Red, have you been to a glacier where 10-15 years ago the ice from the glacier was where you were standing but now it is a mile and a half away? Or how about the extreme weather which seems to get more extreme as the years go by. Global climate change is real. You can deny it and believe it is a “theory” but it is happening all around us as we live our lives. You can continue to claim it is a “theory” as Rome burns. Deny reality and it eventually bites you in the ass. Thanks for your comment.
Red, did you know that a ‘theory’ is the pinnacle of the scientific method, not its starting point?
It’s true.
Gravity? It’s ‘just’ a theory.
That Earth orbits around the sun? It’s ‘just’ a theory.
That Earth is round? (Well, mostly.) It’s ‘just’ a theory.
Global warming? It’s ‘just’ a theory.
All theories that are supported by observable facts and known physics, that have survived all attempts to disprove them, and have become accepted by the overwhelming majority of scientists based on the weight of multiple lines of evidence.
Not to mention withstanding the juvenile efforts of ignorant buffoons such as Monckton and Shimkus.
Smog makes us warmer. What’s wrong with some of that?
I used to believe in Global Climate Change…it was pushed by my professors and the media. Then I decided to use my brain and actually do some real research. I found that many of the “wingnut” deniers include the scientist that came up with the theory…he has recently recanted it because he said that there is not enough proof. So has the top climatologist from Japan along with thousands of other top scientists. If you do the research there are actually more scientists who disagree with it based on the proof they have found using the scientific method (not what their funding has allowed them to say… in fact many lost funding when they spoke up for the truth). Look into the solar flare patterns. They are directly linked to our temperature. You can even look at the history of wine making to see that temperatures fluctuate normally (check out the history of grape growing in England…they have patterns over centuries of when it gets warm enough to grow grapes) . Too many people blindly follow whatever their favorite politician or CNN says without ever using their own brain to look into the matter. Also, people who use insults such as “wingnuts” are using fear and intimidation to silence others, not truth…usually because calling people names will fill the silence when they don’t have the facts to back up their argument. That is not a very good scientific method. So stop believing everything you hear or read on main stream media and stop only researching one side. I believed in global climate change for a few years…then I decided to actually do some research and I found more science to disprove the theory than to prove it. And trust me, I changed my mind much to the frustration of friends and professors who publically called me crazy for doing so. But brave people look for truth not hype. And smart people use their brains.
You know, I really don’t care if it is a natural pattern (which I believe it probably is) or if humankind causes climate change. That seems to be the talking point of the deniers today; whether humans caused it or not.
Core samples analyzed from around the globe have shown severe climate change has happened in the past, many times. Common sense simply tells me the climate is changing right now.
I have worked the land on the various place I have lived for over 35 years and I can notice the change personally in the way plants grow, the yearly precipitation variances and the extensions of the growing seasons. When I travel and go to glaciers around the world and they are two or more miles from where I was standing just 10-12 years ago, common sense tells me something in the environment like the temperature is changing.
Common sense tells me also, the burning of fossil fuels, the waste of modern industrial society and the massive chemicals that go with that will have an effect on the environment. If you want to argue they don’t, well your intelligence and brain power is no match for my common sense.
40 years ago an oil slick and debris in the Cuyahoga River caught fire in Cleveland, Ohio, drawing national attention to environmental problems in Ohio and elsewhere in the United States. Fires occurred on the Cuyahoga River in 1868, 1883, 1887, 1912, 1922, 1936, 1941, 1948, and in 1952 also from pollution.
Back then, the supporters of the status quo were having nothing to do with the pollution problem on the nation’s rivers. They also wanted to deny that the waste of our highly industrialized, chemical society had anything to do with the river catching fire. They had “facts” to back up their argument too.
Just like today. Our industrialized, chemical society has everything to do with effecting the natural cycle of global temperature fluctuation and change by making it more extreme. That chemical shit we use and the waste from it doesn’t just disappear into thin air… there is a cause and effect… and deny it or not, we are seeing the effect worsen every day.
And your “scientific facts” are usually coming from “scientists” bought and paid for by the chemical companies.
So please, don’t lecture me on calling deniers like you names and for me to start looking at “scientific fact” when what is a fact is, that the large corporations can buy “science” anytime they need some to back up their denials and give their foot soldiers like you talking points to refute what is happening, natural or not.
For instance, in the non disclosure agreements the GMO companies have the “scientists” sign before doing “research,” if the GMO companies don’t like the results of the “research,” the results won’t be published and disseminated to the public since it will hurt the profit margins of their product. Just like the “research” the tobacco companies had on cigarettes, and the chemical companies “research” on their chemicals, etc. etc. etc. So please, spare me the lecture on intelligence…
Compare the end results of whoever is wrong in this debate… which side, if wrong, will be more devastating in their results? Yours or mine? If you are wrong, the earth is going to continue to get warmer and uninhabitable. If I am wrong, smart people like you will only be out of a few brain cells from arguing with dumb ass people like me…
Tsk Tsk…so quick to judge. Just because someone doesn’t believe in global climate change doesn’t mean they are spewing chemicals all over the place or supporting those that do. Let me tell you a bit about myself. I am a certified permaculture designer with my organic gardening certificate as well. Both are far more sustainability oriented than what the media yells about. I work for a company that does landscape design in an organic earth friendly way. I grew up at the originial Whole Foods and have bought much of my food from local farmers. Some of my family members had been involved in fighting GMO years ago. I was organic when it wasn’t cool and people picked on me about it. I strongly believe in sustainability and good stewardship. My common sense tells me to…as does the science I look into. My common sense also says to look for truth, use facts to support my arguments, and not to name call when I can’t use my brain to otherwise engage people in reasonable discussion.
I salute you for having the intelligence and experience to adopt organic eating habits and a sustainable job. We are alike in those attributes at least.
I notice how you claim I call you names and yet you claim you use your brain and imply I don’t and you are more intelligent and imply I am not, you are brave and imply I am not, etc. What is that? Same thing, no? Word games, subtle as they may be… much like the current right wing dispute claiming enhanced interrogation techniques is not torture. Simply double speak word games.
Nice try portraying yourself as taking the high ground. Subtly calling someone those things is the same thing as outright calling someone those things. Your high ground argument collapses on your own words. Talk about straw man or woman argument… I thought you were more intelligent than that.
I have read too many to count studies by organizations that have no profit motive in their findings that say global climate change is real and getting worse… by The Pentagon, by the National Academies of Science, NASA, etc. etc. etc.; the list goes on. I don’t need no freaking studies to back up common sense.
Like I said before, and you have conveniently ignored, supporting science can and has been bought and paid for by the profit motive corporate polluters to protect their profits and yet, the supremely and more advanced intelligent sustainable person that you are, runs with it. Confusing and confounding. I am perplexed.
End of my discussion on this…you can have the last comment if you want. Be my guest. I have stuck a fork in it and it is done…
Shame you are so angry, because it makes your argument weak. Our Climate is always changing, scientifically speaking, we would still be in the ice age. I believe whole heartedly that we should reduce waste, protect our environment, live healthier. To do so using faulty science and creating an atmosphere of fear is non productive elitism. I too have seen things change mainly the attitude by which people fail to tolerate in a civil manner those who disagree on premise. It is a type of crying wolf, when your argument fails it will actually injure the movement to protect our environment and providing a healthy world for us to live in.