File this one under the “It matters too much too laugh, and my tear ducts are dry”:
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) questioned Duffy on the factors that contribute to sea-level rise, pointing out that land subsidence plays a role, as well as human activity.
Brooks then said that erosion plays a significant role in sea-level rise, which is not an idea embraced by mainstream climate researchers. He said the California coastline and the White Cliffs of Dover tumble into the sea every year, and that contributes to sea-level rise. He also said that silt washing into the ocean from the world’s major rivers, including the Mississippi, the Amazon and the Nile, is contributing to sea-level rise.
“Every time you have that soil or rock or whatever it is that is deposited into the seas, that forces the sea levels to rise, because now you have less space in those oceans, because the bottom is moving up,” Brooks said.
My man (or is he an ambulatory ficus?) Mo is not the only Republican to be, let us say, profoundly and proudly ignorant of basic knowledge. (Another way of putting it is that this is another Republican bluntly lying about a critical issue that will affect — read harm — millions of Americans, and billions of humans.) Here’s House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chair (sic!) Lamar Smith:
At one point, Smith showed a slide of two charts that he said demonstrated how the rate of sea-level rise does not equal the sharp spike in the consumption of fossil fuels. When Smith pointed out that rates of sea-level rise have only increased slightly compared with the rate of fossil fuel use, Duffy pointed out that his chart was from a single tide gauge station, near San Francisco, and that sea levels rise at different rates around the world. Smith did not show rising atmospheric CO2levels or temperatures, both of which have climbed steadily in recent decades as emissions have increased.
And because no catalogue of Republican malicious misrepresentation would be complete without the Kremlin’s man on Capitol Hill, Dana Rohrbacher, here’s his contribution to the enstupiding of America:
“I’m a little bit disturbed by, No. 1, over and over again, I hear, ‘Don’t ever talk about whether mankind is the main cause of the temperature changing and the climate changing,'” [Rohrbacher] said. “That’s a little disturbing to hear constantly beaten into our heads in a Science Committee meeting, when basically we should all be open to different points of view.”
More of the same at the link: BS about ice sheets, masturbatory distraction on what temperature is “normal” on earth and so on.
We are asked to show respect for our fellow citizens on the other side of the aisle. My response: respect is earned.
Image: J.M.W. Turner, The Sun of Venice going out to sea, 1843
Yarrow
I have no respect for these people. They are worse than willfully stupid; they actively work to hurt people and pursue policies to damage our environment while enriching themselves.
WereBear
See, this gets me furious…
Victory
“I’m a little bit disturbed by, No. 1, over and over again, I hear, ‘Don’t ever talk about whether the sun is at the center of our solar system,’” [Rohrbacher] said. “That’s a little disturbing to hear constantly beaten into our heads in a Science Committee meeting, when basically we should all be open to different points of view.”
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
Exordinary claims, exordinary evidence, etc.
Kelly
Keep an open mind but not so open your brain falls out.
schrodingers_cat
Closed hearts and closed minds.
Nicole
I think about Dubya being asked about how history would view the Iraq invasion and his response was basically, who cares, we’ll all be dead in a hundred years. I swear, that’s their mindset. It’s not going to affect them, because they’ll be dead in 40 years. I guess, if they even give a sh*t about their descendants, they figure they’ll steal enough money now that their grandkids can go afford to go live in that underwater hotel off what’s left of the Maldives.
WilliamC
As more and more days pass, I’m becoming convinced that Pussygrabber is the white Louis Farrakhan: a racial provocateur who uses flashy ringmaster tactics, religious dogwhistles, and good-old fashioned hate on his supportive ethnically-similar brethren to forward his own personal agenda. My brothers, cousins, and friends were falling into the orbit of the Nation of Islam back in the 1990s and I remember thinking these things about Minister Farrakhan then, being incensed that he was able to get folks to follow him. Apparently his game was small-time compared to the Gathering of the Trumpenproletariat.
Rob in CT
@Victory:
The fuck is he even saying? Is he ACTUALLY questioning heliocentrism? Or is that a hamfisted attempt to bring up “the Sun is driving the warming” argument (which is bunk, but less obviously stupid bunk)?
Villago Delenda Est
So is disrespect, and the MAGAts have earned the disrespect they are shown in spades.
father pusbucket
How do you know the moon isn’t made of cheese? It’s a valid point of view! And the moon landings were faked!
ruemara
these are the dumbest people. But you know what, they beat us smart folks. Why? All the super duper smart people were too blase about voting, especially for local seats. For ages. You left power just sitting around for any yahoo to find it & guess what? They found it.
trollhattan
These bastards are doing their level best to hasten our and a significant fraction of the world’s species’ demise. Pruitt and Zinke are their standard-bearers but they’ve been out there for decades now. Isn’t this at least misdemeanor assault?
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: Some so called smart people decided making snarky comebacks on social media was enough.
ETA: Rs are terrible at policy but good at politics. It also helps that they have the media in their back pockets.
TenguPhule
These Republicans are going to get our species all killed in the long term.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
Actually they’re not even good at that.
The problem is they cheat and never pay a sufficiently steep penalty for it.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
Premeditated murder.
maya
Not only that, if we damned up all the rivers of the world many times over then a lot of that water would not go back into the sea, which would keep levels down and, even Mo’ betta yet…. lakeside properties for everyone!
[This was actually a thing here in NorCal back in the ’60s when a planned dam by PG&E turned a huuuge logging loop road near one river into a big RE lakeside speculative investment opp. The dam never happened and today that loop road is a major MJ producer. Where they get the water from is a different cautionary tale.]
Yarrow
Buzzfeed has a story…
Tick tock, motherfuckers.
Yarrow
@Yarrow: Also from the article.
Oh, they are so fucked. Sooooo fucked.
Neldob
Took a walk in the woods the other day and it left me feeling in love with our little, beautiful planet. Rs are like barbarians with no love or respect trashing whatever they lay their eyes on. Rohrbacher is particularly deplorable.
WereBear
@ruemara: Brilliant.
VeniceRiley
I’m not in Rohrbacher’s district anymore. Sad that I can’t vote against him. But I do have a shot at taking down Mimi Walters, and that’s a nice consolation prize!
White & Gold Purgatorian
Mo Brooks is a nut, but he isn’t stupid enough to believe the falling rock yarn, so I’d say he’s lying his ass off to further a political agenda. It is worth noting that climate deniers John Christy and Roy Spencer set up a nice little alternative facts climate sandbox at University of Alabama Huntsville in Brooks’ district. Wouldn’t be surprised if they were feeding him the rocks/silt line of obfuscation. Crazy thing is, this is a very well educated and tech savvy electorate, at least by Alabama standards, but many have bought the no climate change crap, hook line & sinker.
Mo Brooks will have a Democratic opponent this fall. I believe it will be former Huntsville City Attorney Peter Joffrion. Perhaps he can make some political hay off the falling rocks silliness.
jonas
They forgot whale farts. They produce huge bubbles that displace water, leading to sea-level rise.
Skepticat
@schrodingers_cat:
I rather doubt they have either hearts or minds, open or closed.
Frankensteinbeck
@TenguPhule:
You don’t have to be a good businessman if you’ve got a monopoly. The Republicans are the only game in town for white supremacy, and half our nation will gladly crawl over broken glass for white supremacy.
opiejeanne
@White & Gold Purgatorian: Climate change deniers are vile and the people who believe their nonsense are either gullible or in denial. My daughter works for a company that ships goods between Seattle and Alaska, and on a trip to Alaska she met a man who talked about how huge a glacier used to be and how it has diminished just in the past ten years, but he was quick to add that he doesn’t believe in climate change. Her mind was boggled.
Leto
@jonas: User name checks out as credible source.
danjos
My theory is that I am either laughing to tears or crying at all the stupid shit Repubs say, and it is our collective tears that are raising sea levels.
stinger
@ruemara: This. I know people who voted for the top of the ticket (President) and left the rest blank, because they couldn’t be bothered to find out who was running and what the issues were. When actually local and state government have a HUGE effect on your life.
So then, after another election or two, those local yahoos have name recognition and they coast to reelection or run for and win higher office. Just because people don’t pay attention to local races.
Yarrow
@stinger: The rightwing Republicans have been working on this since the 1980’s. Took over local party apparatus, then moved up the ladder.
gene108
I’m still trying to figure out the Republican desire to deny climate science. Is it some Christian fundie thing, wherein God gave Man the Earth pillage as Man pleases, without any consequences? Is it just because their donors don’t want them to deal with it?
I know it’s probably a combination of the two and some other things I am missing, but I don’t get what their end game is. Just hope and pray 99% of scientists are wrong? And that their kids and grand kids will not be in a world of hurt, because of their inaction?
These people are nuts.
schrodingers_cat
@gene108: A lot of their money comes from fossil fuel industry, climate science hits their sugar daddies in the pocket book, hence the denial.
catclub
the real reason for rising sea level is all that river water running into the oceans! and he did not even mention THAT!
trollhattan
@opiejeanne:
It’s all just naaaatural fluuuuuctuation, man! The climate has always been changing. Tides come in, tides go out, you can’t explain that.
Rinse, repeat, buy more conditioner.
trollhattan
Fox Blonde put in charge of Fox Blondes.
It ain’t noon but I’m really considering a nice stiff drink.
catclub
@gene108:
I think this.
In the back of their lizard brains, they know that if you decide that fossil fuel use will be reduced, then there is some (pretty big)
fraction of oil that is NEVER going to be pumped out. Now look at what assets are held by the major oil companies. Oil in the ground is a big part of those assets. Once you decide that oil is NEVER going to be pumped out, those assets are no longer assets.
Deny and delay any recognition of those impaired assets.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
Its always five o clock at Balloon Juice!
trollhattan
Ya know, some people are just too stupid to keep living.
“Now watch this drive.”
Aleta
@catclub: Wail til Rep Brooks learns about mid-ocean ridges and all that lava !
Cheryl Rofer
According to my Twitter feed, Trump is now saying that
1) we will not let North Korea get nuclear weapons
2) that we will not use “the Libya model” if Kim agrees to denuclearize
3) “the Libya model” is that we will decimate the country if Kim doesn’t agree.
It probably would be better for knowledgeable people not to try to brief him at all. He seems to get the opposite of what they tell him.
trollhattan
@Cheryl Rofer:
Does he propose to unessplode the nukes NK has already sploded? I have a hard time keeping up with the supergenius.
catclub
@Cheryl Rofer:
wasn’t there concern by his classified briefers about just that? If they told him “do not tell the Russians about this”, the first thing he would do is tell the russians. Naturally, Israeli intelligence assets may have died, but… bygones.
NYCMT
a good estimate of global sediment is in Milliman and Syvitsky (1992) about 20 billion tons annually. At 1600 kg/cubic meter, this works out to around 12.5 cubic kilometers of sediment per year. To raise the global ocean level one centimeter, one would need to add or displace ~4700 cubic kilometers of sea water. Since global sea level rise since 1990 has been about seven centimeters, total erosion would have had to be about 100 times historical levels.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
Even for Trump this is kinda pushing new bounderies of stupid.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
This reminds me of the creationist argument that if the earth were millions of years old, why aren’t we burred under mountains of dead bodies.
The correct reply to Brooks is has he considered that sea level rises are caused by the amount of raw sewage humans are dumping into the ocean?
S
For those curious, I did some back-of-the-envelope math. According to a 2009 study by Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink, (“Land2Sea database of river drainage basin sizes, annual water discharges, and suspended sediment fluxes” https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2008GC002356), rivers deposit about 18.5 billion tons of suspended sediment into the ocean each year. How much would this cause the sea level to rise? Well, the packed sediment volume is about 5.6 billion m^3 (assuming density of 3000 kg/m^3). Suppose you spread the sediment evenly over the entire ocean floor (361.9 million square kilometers). Then it would form a layer 16 micrometers thick (a bit less than a thousandth of an inch). This would account for a bit less than 0.9% of the observed annual sea level rise.
Rob in CT
@gene108:
Climate Change is the biggest collective action problem in human history. The response *must* involve government action (although of course many of us have pointed out for a long time now that the earlier you start, the less draconian it has to be, and there are more and less market friendly options), likely quite a bit of it. It will also cost particularly connected rich people money (though it would also make a bunch of new rich people, of course). Anyway, if it’s a real problem, then it follows that the government must be empowered to combat it, and that’s just nightmare fuel for Republicans. So that’s the start of it. There’s also cultural issues (those fuckin’ eggheads, what do they know? + the religion thing you mentioned) and of course, Cleek’s Law. If climate change is really happening and is caused almost entirely by human activity, then… OMG… the… the liberals were… um… RIGHT. And that’s a truly horrifying thought…
NotMax
@Cheryl Rofer
And as the l’affaire Daniels demonstrates, debriefing him ain’t no walk in the park either.
;)
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@gene108:
God will provide either by rapture or miracles. I seem to recall James Watt arguing that we weren’t going to be around much longer because of end times so we might as well party.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@NYCMT: Thanks. Displacement isn’t an inherently bad argument until you have information about how little there is.
oaguabonita
Ya know what else is “a little disturbing to hear”, Dana? That anyone as profoundly stupid AND ignorant (not the same thing!) as you was ever appointed to any committee with “Science” in its name!
I presume it’s The Zombie-Eyed Granny-Starver who should be held accountable for that travesty (but is instead poised to profit handsomely from Wingnut Welfare while “spending more time with family” in “retirement”).
oaguabonita
@gene108: Nuts or evil? Always the operative question with them.
catclub
@S: and see! you did not even bother to realize that all the fresh water MUST have raised sea-level much more
than the sediment. Since didn’t all that water go into the ocean basins? huh? huh? Now evaporation, that is just something that pointy headed scientists talk about.
catclub
@oaguabonita: porque no los dos?
oaguabonita
@Rob in CT: Poe’s Law strikes again. Pretty confident victory took some liberties with the actual quote for comedic effect. Effectively!
catclub
@S:
This seems high to me. I like NYCMT’s 1600
a little better. Of course in order of magnitude estimates, both are definitely in the same ballpark.
oaguabonita
@catclub: Por supuesto, los dos estan posible en mismo tiempo.
oaguabonita
@schrodingers_cat: “Follow the money.” Deepthroat’s advice still sound 4 1/2 decades on.
oaguabonita
Is a box of rocks dumber, or not quite as dumb, as a bag of hammers? I can never seem to keep them straight.
boatboy_srq
This is the same group of wingnuts that think they are in a permanent majority, and that think they can cut taxes, increase spending and balance the budget all at once. STEM is not their strong suit.
Tehanu
@gene108: They care much more about their wallets than they do about their kids and grandkids. The kids probably annoyed them when they were teenagers and their grandkids probably snark at them because they don’t understand how Minecraft works and can’t figure out how to download apps to their phones (mine certainly snark at me for those very reasons!) — so their attitude is, why should they give up their Porsche SUV’s and golf club memberships on account of their offspring? Screw ’em!