Thursday, April 11, 2013

Barton, Climate Change, and the GOP War on Science Continues

This week's shot from the GOP War on Science came from Texas representative Joe Barton. In a statement full of both confusing analysis and an even more confusing metaphor, Barton explained that the Great Flood was an example of climate change as well as an example of why there was no need to manage climate change.

Leave aside the whole question of the historicity of the Great Flood and the Noah legend. Assuming that the flood was historical, and assuming that it was an example of what happens under climate change, wouldn't that be an argument to try to avoid global warming? Unless he is proposing that we start building really big boats.

Now let's go back to the question of the historicity of the Great Flood. There is an interesting hypothesis that the Great Flood legend comes from the flooding of the Black Sea basin during the global warming at the end of the last ice age. Maybe Barton heard this story and assumed that there was actually scientific evidence for the whole legend, including the giant boat that still wasn't big enough to hold the dinosaurs.

Just for fun, here is another classic bit of "scientific" evidence regarding climate change. Lunar volcanoes, anyone?