Joe Barton (R-TX): Global Warming is a net benefit for mankind

[babylonsister]

Run time: 01:50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kiwTMbxwEg   Posted on YouTube: December 14, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: December 14, 2009 By DU Member: babylonsister Views on DU: 1181

 
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/14/smokey-joe-warming/

‘Smokey Joe’ Barton: Global Warming ‘Is A Net Benefit To Mankind’

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), nicknamed “Smokey Joe” for his persistent advocacy on behalf of polluters, sat for an interview with C-Span this weekend to discuss a variety of environmental issues.

Barton expressed concern that regulation of carbon dioxide pollution would restrict his “convenient” and “modern lifestyle.” “I don’t want to go back to the 1870s where my great-grandparents lived on a dry land cotton farm in Texas with no running water and no electricity and their power source was their own muscles or animal power,” Barton feared.

He then argued that the warming of the planet is actually a “net benefit” for humans:

CO2 is odorless, colorless, tasteless – it’s not a threat to human health in terms of being exposed to it. We create it as we talk back and forth. So, and if you go beyond that, on a net basis, there’s ample evidence that warming generically — however it is caused — is a net benefit to mankind.

Ironically, just as Barton is pushing his claim that warming is beneficial for humans, the Pentagon is concluding that “global warming is now officially considered a threat to U.S. national security.” In its upcoming 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, Pentagon planners will report that climate change could result in food and water scarcity, pandemics, population displacement, and other destabilizing events that could create conflict.

“The American people expect the military to plan for the worst,” says retired Vice Adm. Lee Gunn, a 35-year Navy veteran now serving as president of the American Security Project. “It’s that sort of mindset, I think, that has convinced, in my view, the vast majority of military leaders that climate change is a real threat and that the military plays an important role in confronting it.”

Barton took issue with Sarah Palin’s call for Obama to boycott Copenhagen. “I like Sarah Palin as a person…I would disagree with her though. I think the President’s got every right to go to Copenhagen,” he said.

[T Wolf]

1. When Texas is even more uninhabitable than it is now, when the whole state turns into a

desert wasteland, when the average temperature is 130 in the summer, when the Gulf rises and takes back half the low-lying land...

... maybe this idiot will get the picture.

Probably not.

[HopeHoops]

8. I'm starting to think THAT scenario would be a benefit.

Do they genetically engineer idiots or is it just that severe a DNA problem in Texas?

[hmorehead]

2. Thankfully bullshit isn't "colorless, tasteless, oderless".

[robo50]

4. And we all know what that smells like, and add a little oil to the smell because

after all, this is TEXAS !!!!

[babylonsister]

5. Aren't you enlightened-NOT. I notice you hide your location.

Quit bashing a state you know nothing about. Not everyone in Texas is like Joe Barton.

[bookman]

6. Thanks...

...this Texan is very mindful of the climate change situation.

[hmorehead]

10. Come to think of it, I live in 78704 and 'scuse me while I kiss the sky.

[robo50]

11. The state of Texas has oil wells, does it not? That's all I meant to say

Politicians like this guy are influenced by OIL money, and by the fact that Texas has oil to keep selling.
So he smells of oil as well as bullshit.


I see absolutely NOTHING in my post that was in any way intended to insult the state, nor the residents.

By the way, I have been to Texas several times in my life, by choice. Obviously I don't hate it.

[swilton]

3. The US ignorance and anti-intellectualism

is shameful.

Unfortunately, this is symptomatic of American culture and the few enlightened sould who get it are in the minority of our national leadership.

[LynnTheDem]

7. Stupid is just the Way Of Life for republicans.

"climate change is a real threat and that the military plays an important role in confronting it.”

Oh good. Another "war" we will never win.

I mean...W.T.F. :wow:

[Hulk]

9. I just have to assume MOST people in Texas are stupid....

I know it isn't a fact...but from the legislators they send to Washington DC to represent them...it sure seems they must be a state full of idiots and dufus dumb asses.

Of course, there are a few that got out of the state who SHOULD move back...such as inhofe of OK and a few other fools.

Can't we just start a phony Civil War again and just give up before it begins.

[Tutankhamun]

12. This guy should win some kind of corrupt fucktard of the day award.

"Net benefit". A Mack truck plowing over Smoky Joe's fat ass would be a "net benefit."