Sunday, February 11, 2007

Dinosaur Farts Are Responsible For Global Warming

Or so Congressman Dana Rohrabacher suggested the other day. Dana is one of the majority of Republicans who do not believe that global climate change is caused by human activity, despite tremendous evidence that it is indeed the case.

The video on ThinkProgress of the event is amusing to say the least. Rohrabacher cites his fact-checking skills as a former journalist who doesn't automatically believe a story even if the vast majority of people say that it is the truth. Well bravo Dana, bravo! Then he suggested that Dinosaur flatulence might have caused temperatures to rise in the past somewhat comically. I can hear you laughing now, though hopefully it is laughing at him for being a tool of the right and not because his joke was funny.

From ThinkProgress:

Presumably, Rohrabacher was referencing a period known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Then, as in now, “sharp rises in temperature were initiated and driven by large spikes in greenhouse gases. … It took over 100K years for the ocean, atmosphere, and temperatures to return to their previous state. The result was a mass extinction event that took millions of years to recover from.” But scientists believe that massive methane releases from the ocean floors — not dinosaur farts — were the cause.

In sharp contrast to Rohrabacher, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) delivered an opening statement recommending mandatory caps on global warming pollution and calling out conservatives for rejecting science. “For twelve years, the leadership in the House of Representatives stifled all discussion and debate of global warming. That long rejection of reality is over, to the relief of Members on both sides of the aisle.”



Thank our lucky stars that morons like Rohrabacher take a back seat in the House along with the rest of Republican congressional delegation. Their tired old views and rejections of reality deserve to be put in the back as the Democratic majority conducts the American people's business in this new 110th Congress.