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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Down To Earth

Friday Quotes: Top Ten Crazy Things Conservatives Say About Global Warming

I think I'm at least a little bit guilty in this edition. I'm not trying to make a partisan point/counterpoint here, it's simply the selected reactionary quotes to science entering policy are worth noting in their comic and mostly inflammatory dismissal. Nice going everybody! However, this is part of an ongoing series by Bill Scher at the Huffington Post, so perhaps my conscience is not so clean. I just wish it was a joke.

Anyways, thank God for science. Read and ye shall judge:


10. "...the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you've got more carbon dioxide." - House Minority Leader John Boehner (Photo of Boehner, exhaling like a whoopee cusion.)

9. "Terrorism kills -- and Barbara Boxer's worried about the weather." - California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina

8. "... whether it's the Chinese seeding clouds, whether it's some of the industrialized nations in the world trying to get together for cap-and-trade to try to reduce the CO2 emissions. You know, this might be the modern version of the rain dance" - Rep. Steve King

7."They used to talk about global warming -- y'all might remember a few years ago they were talking about an ice age was coming. It's the same folks, the folks who want to change America, want to rule America. They want to change us to a New World Order. President George Herbert Walker Bush, remember, very openly said he wanted to have a New World Order" - Rep. Paul Broun

6."[CO2] gets sucked down by trees and helps the trees grow" - Wisconsin Senate candidate Ron Johnson.

5."Carbon dioxide, Mister Speaker, is a natural byproduct of nature. Carbon dioxide is natural. It occurs in Earth. It is a part of the regular lifecycle of Earth. In fact, life on planet Earth can't even exist without carbon dioxide. So necessary is it to human life, to animal life, to plant life, to the oceans, to the vegetation that's on the Earth, to the, to the fowl that -- that flies in the air, we need to have carbon dioxide as part of the fundamental lifecycle of Earth." - Rep. Michelle Bachmann

4."Deniers? OK, OK, I'm one of those folks." - Colorado Senate candidate Ken Buck

3."Cap and Trade, which is based on an unscientific hysteria over the man-caused global warming hoax, steps over the constitutional boundaries of the federal government..." - Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle, from her original campaign website, taken down after winning her primary.

2."Adaptation to shifts in temperature is not that difficult ... During the Little Ice Age, both the Vikings and the British adapted to the cold by changing. I suppose that one possible adaptation response of Viking retrenchment and British expansion is that we're conducting the hearing today in English instead of Norwegian" -- Congressman and BP apologist Joe Barton

...And Number 1!

"I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back" - Rep. Michelle Bachmann



Down To Earth

The DTE blog is committed to reporting and sharing environmental news and sustainability information from across the Inland Northwest.