Replicans Concerned: How Do We Appear Non-Insane On Climate While Not Actually Doing Anything?

[hatrack]

EDIT

But with incoming Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell promising to fast-track the Keystone XL pipeline and gut the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it seems like they may actually have one—just not one that will help Graham’s cause, or the climate. And a bill offered up by departing Texas Congressman Steve Stockman, who did not run for reelection, adds fuel to the climate-denier fire.

You may remember Stockman as the Congressman in the Jon Stewart climate denier segment who grilled a testifying scientist about why climate change predictions did not take into account “global wobbling,” something that has nothing to do with the climate. His new bill is more of the same. Stockman has introduced H.B. 5718 or the “Stockman Effect Act,” (its official name in the Congressional Record) “to study the effect of the Earth’s magnetic field on the weather.”

It says, “Congress finds as follows: (1) Prior to a magnetic polar shift, there is a decline in the Earth’s magnetic fields. (2) Decrease in magnetic fields could impact global temperatures. (3) There is a possibility that the reason Mars lost its atmosphere was because of the loss of its magnetic field. (b) Magnetic Field Study. The director of the National Science Foundation shall commission a study on the impact that a shift in the Earth’s magnetic field could have on the weather.” Alas, Congress is not a scientific body and Stockman is not a scientist. (He was formerly a computer salesman). And there is no “Stockman Effect,” at least none relating the the climate.

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Former South Carolina congressman Bob Inglis, who served in the House with Graham in the late ’90s and early ’00s and later founded the Energy and Enterprise Initiative to take on the daunting task of convincing conservatives to act on climate change, told Roll Call he agrees with Graham. “If conservatives plan on winning the White House back, we’ve got to have something on the menu that addresses this felt need for action on climate,” he said.

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Ed. - emphasis added.

http://ecowatch.com/2014/11/25/graham-climate-denier-problem/

[Fred Sanders]

1. Unbelievable. Magnetic field effect...on the "weather"? The fucking bill confuses climate and

weather...unbelievable stupidity from the computer salesman.

America, the Dumb and Dumber. I am sure the media guardians of truth and democracy will get right on it.

[DetlefK]

2. Wait until somebody tells him that there's a solar wind.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Pseudoscience to the rescue !

(We kind of knew that was going to happen, didn't we ?)

[Nihil]

4. You know, I really wouldn't mind them continuing to be as retarded as they want ...

... if it only affected them, their families & their friends.

As it is, the fact that it affects every living creature (and many yet to come)
means that their ignorant, greedy & selfish attitude is totally unforgivable
and deserving of far worse punishment than they read in their holy books.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. “global wobbling,” something that has nothing to do with the climate

Well, that’s not exactly true…

I assume by, “global wobbling,” he was talking about “Milankovitch Cycles.” There is good reason to believe that Milankovitch Cycles are linked to ice ages and thaws. The slight (ahem) “wobbling” kicks things off, and positive feed backs take over. (The result exceeds the cause.)

So, “global wobbling” does affect the climate, rather dramatically. However, Milankovitch cycles are quite regular, and… we’re not due for any rapid warming just now, actually, we should be cooling down, however anthropogenic greenhouse gasses have overwhelmed the effect of “global wobbling.”