Well, that's OK then (no, not really: run, Americans)

God, it turns out, won't allow global warming, so we can all stop worrying and spending money on environmental projects.

Says who?

Says, John Shimkus.

Who?

Ah. This is where it gets a little worrying. He's. Well. He's the US Congressman who's running for the Chairman's position on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. If he wins, he's the most powerful man in the world on environmental matters, because he can block anything Obama proposes, and can try to repeal the pathetic environmental laws already in place in the USA (by far the biggest polluter on earth per capita).

Shimkus has also called an energy bill incorporating cap and trade measures for carbon emissions as the "largest assault on democracy and freedom in this country that I've ever experienced."  His position on carbon emissions includes the belief that reducing carbon dioxide will be detrimental for plant life.

In a way, he's actually an improvement on most Christian Republican loons. Many of those who are actually persuaded that global warming is happening (a minority) think that climate change is part of the End Times and shouldn't be prevented: it's God's will.



I think I'll go back to bed. For ever.

Are élite Americans actually this stupid or just pretending?

Some choice quotes from the House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, c/o Grist.org

John Shimkus, Republican-Illinois: “If we decrease the use of carbon dioxide, are we not taking away plant food from the atmosphere? ... So all our good intentions could be for vain. In fact, we could be doing the opposite of what the people who want to save the world are saying.”

Joe Barton, Republican-Texas, claiming that wind power will CAUSE global warming: "Wind is God’s way of balancing heat. Wind is the way you shift heat from areas where it’s hotter to areas where it’s cooler. That’s what wind is. Wouldn’t it be ironic if in the interest of global warming we mandated massive switches to energy, which is a finite resource, which slows the winds down, which causes the temperature to go up? Now, I’m not saying that’s going to happen, Mr. Chairman, but that is definitely something on the massive scale. I mean, it does make some sense. You stop something, you can’t transfer that heat, and the heat goes up. It’s just something to think about".

E. Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation: “fear of catastrophic, man-made global warming is a mistake,” and argued that because the “biblical worldview sees the world and ecosystems as the work of a wise God,” humankind couldn’t possibly be affecting the climate.

Lord Christopher Monckton, aka the 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, a British hereditary peer (adviser to Thatcher, journalist, not a scientist) who’s become a minor star in the climate-skeptic world. “The right response to the non-problem of global warming is to have the courage to do nothing,” he told the panel. He readily agreed with Rep. Shimkus: “We are a carbon-starved planet.”