Texas congressman Louie Gohmert (R) in what seemed like a "brainstorming" moment, speculated about defeating or mitigating global warming by changing the Moon's orbit around the Earth, or the Earth's orbit around the Sun. Or was he thinking more about protecting the Earth from geomagnetic disturbances that emanate from the Sun, such as Coronal Mass Ejections or CMEs? Like the Carrington Event of 1859? "Whatever."
He posed it as a question, during a House committee hearing. Was the question directed at a NASA official? Guess again. He put it to "one" Jennifer Eberlien, a federal official who was representing the National Forest Service. That was on Tuesday.
I don't know whether it's made the rounds with any of the late night entertainment hosts like Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel, but MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell made it the closing for his hour-long segment on Wednesday night. I don't have that on video, but . . . I leave it to each forum reader's (if there are any) imagination.
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 06-10-2021).]
Wouldn't it be enlightening to hear the entire line of questioning, testifying and commenting?
Snippets don't do much to inform a curious mind.
rinse, you strike me as having a curious mind (based on the wide variety and frequency of your postings on this Forum), did you feel stimulated enough to listen to the entire exchange in the meeting?
Not enough to do the online "detective" work that would be necessary for me to have the entire conversation between Congressman Gohmert and that National Forest Service official.
I have seen a little more of that conversation that was immediately before and then immediately after the very brief snippet that Lawrence O'Donnell used.
There are some "way out" ideas about protecting the planet (and the people that inhabit it) from Global Warming. Like spreading iron compounds or other fertilizers onto the surface of the ocean, to accelerate the growth of photo-synthesizing microorganisms (plankton)--with the objective of removing more CO2 from the air (via photosynthesis) and even beyond that, also accelerating the formation of clouds that would reflect sunlight back into outer space and also help mitigate global warming.
There's actually some thinking that the photo-synthesizing organisms (plankton) have evolved to release chemicals into the atmosphere that accelerate cloud formation. Like they have evolved to create their own climate control "machine."
Another idea: Injecting the right kinds of chemicals into the upper atmosphere to reflect incoming sunlight back into outer space.
There's other ideas of that kind. Ideas that in some cases have actually been tested in small scale experiments. So I don't fault Congressman Gohmert just for "thinking outside of the box." But changing the orbit of the Moon around the Earth, or the Earth around the Sun . . . he's not just "outside the box." He's not even anywhere close to the "box."
I've seen the idea of changing the Earth's orbit come up in discussions about what happens about a billion years from now (maybe more like 5 billion years from now) when the Sun has burned up most of it's hydrogen nuclear fuel and transitions from a medium-sized yellow star into a "red giant."
Bringing that up in a conversation with an official from the National Forest Service?
C'mon man!
[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 06-10-2021).]
Living 85' from a National Forest and dealing with them on occasion, I can tell you that those folks aren't always the brightest bulbs in the chandelier either
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 06-10-2021).]
Anyone that's spent more than 2 minutes listening to Congressman Gohmert could tell immediately that he was being sarcastic....
...unlike this Leftist Demorat Congressman who was being completely and laughably serious back in 2010
(NO, it wasn't an "April Fools Day" joke as much as Leftists desperately wish that it was)
"My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize," Johnson said. Admiral Willard paused and replied, "We don't anticipate that."
Leftists are always trying to tell everyone that they're "the smart kids" but invariably spend more time proving how incredibly stupid they are.
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 06-11-2021).]
rinse, you strike me as having a curious mind (based on the wide variety and frequency of your postings on this Forum), did you feel stimulated enough to listen to the entire exchange in the meeting?
No, he just posts about politics and cheap shots the right wing. He needs a little more diversity.
He'll post1 in 15 about science, but as you saw in the thread this week about energy he takes it back to politics.
[This message has been edited by sourmash (edited 06-11-2021).]
Originally posted by olejoedad: Louie is so good at sarcasm that many on the Left aren't sharp enough to pick up on it......
Of course! What was I thinking(?)
It's a high bar (toweringly high) that was set, for the performative art of sarcasm on the political stage, by former President Obama.
Like the time Obama went to Poland and had his audience howling with laughter about "Polish" death camps during the Nazi occupation of Poland during WW2.
Or the time that Obama pretended to fall victim to an open microphone, almost whispering to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev "I'll have more flexibility after I'm reelected in November." Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink. Without Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud. In other words, Dmitry, you can bloody well kiss my ass if you think Barack Obama is ever going to cut you any favors. Sarcasm at its finest.
Or the time that Obama said he had visited all "57" of the United States. "Yeah right . . . 57. Like Heinz 57 Varieties. You people are SO dumb."
A Modest Proposal: Let’s Change Earth’s Orbit What’s the worst that could happen?
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During a congressional hearing last week, Republican Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas asked a U.S. Forest Service official if her organization or the Bureau of Land Management could change the orbit of the moon or Earth to reverse the effects of human-caused climate change. That seems like a perfectly reasonable idea, doesn’t it? Let’s do it. . . .
I think that's a little misleading. Congressman Gohmert asked if any thought had been given to these ideas; I wouldn't say that he outright asked if there was any confidence about a human capability to do this, nor would I say that he asked if there was any confidence that it would be a good idea to actually do it, if it were possible to do it.
It's not remotely feasible for humans to do anything that would change the Earth's orbit around the Sun or the Moon's orbit around the Earth, "period", whether it would be for the purpose of defeating or mitigating the effects of global warming or for any other purpose. Spoiler Alert
Maddie Bender is a 2021 AAAS Mass Media Fellow at Scientific American. She recently received an M.P.H. in microbial disease epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health.
