Two Bad Ideas in the Last Ten Minutes

Within ten minutes of one another, I:

1) Got a call from someone with a perpetual motion machine that involves the movement of buoyant objects in water (I see at least two of these per year), and

2) Encountered this video in which U.S. Representative Jerry Anderson (R-UT) claims we need more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – as much as twice our current levels, because a) it’s less than 0.5% of the air, b) it’s the natural product of animals’ exhalation, c) there are plants in the district he represents that can’t get enough, d) the dinosaurs did well with higher levels than we have now, and e) climate change is good because global warming makes cold winters easier to get through.

I know I’ve said it before, but I’m always amazed that people with no background in or understanding of a certain area can contradict the scientists who have focused their entire careers on that certain area–and still be taken seriously.  I don’t have a problem with nut-jobs, but I do have a problem with nut-jobs who make our laws — in this case, laws that seek to limit the function of our Environmental Protection Agency.

I wish Anderson were the only one in Congress with an outrageously misguided viewpoint on climate science, but he isn’t; there are a ton of them.  It’s almost as if there were a very powerful force behind getting all these boobs elected.  Hey, you don’t suppose….

In any case, the rest of the afternoon can only improve.