Badly Misinformed Lawmaker Thinks Our Warm Bodies May Be Causing Climate Change

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Huffington Post

03/29/2017 03:52 pm ET | Updated 8 hours ago

Spoiler alert: Republican Scott Wagner is very wrong.
By Michael McLaughlin



A Republican state senator running for governor of Pennsylvania shared some unusual views this week about what’s causing climate change.

Scott Wagner told a Harrisburg audience on Tuesday that the body heat from the planet’s growing population might be responsible for rising temperatures.

“We have more people. You know, humans have warm bodies. So is heat coming off?” Wagner said, according to State Impact Pennsylvania, an NPR project. “Things are changing, but I think we are, as a society, doing the best we can.”

The lawmaker was speaking to a receptive audience of rural county officials about loosening regulations on the natural gas industry.







Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/climate-change-misinformation-scott-wagner_us_58dbeecce4b01ca7b4292dc5?section=us_politics

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[center]

Republican State Senator Scott Wagner

Derp.

[No Vested Interest]

1. I've read that the gases given off by cows and cattle may add to climate change.

Could it be that humans also give off gasses that are warming the planet?

[Fast Walker 52]

11. the human population as a whole probably emits a significant amount of methane

but not as much as cows and other livestock

Animal agriculture is a real contributor to climate change, and we should all eat less meat

[Towlie]

15. I think you're being very unsensitive to those who have to eat what they can get.

http://www.thp.org/knowledge-center/know-your-world-facts-about-hunger-poverty/

World Hunger. 795 million people – or one in nine people in the world – do not have enough to eat. 98% of the world's undernourished people live in developing countries.

[byronius]

22. Meat is incredibly inefficient. It takes ten times the grain to produce meat.

Pollutes everything, uses ten times the water --

There's no justification. At all. It's a bad habit.

[Fast Walker 52]

31. it's cheaper and easier to feed people vegetarian food

there are rare places like Tibet where meat is more practical to eat, but I don't see why what I said was insensitive.

[oldcynic]

36. How about eating meat and having less human babies n/t

[Fast Walker 52]

45. definitely!

[jpak]

17. A cow emits 400 liters of methane per day

Humans less than 0.1 L per day

The moran spews bullshit

yup

[Fast Walker 52]

32. wow, that's way more than I thought for cows

thanks

[jpak]

34. It varies with the cow and diet

The range is 100-400 L per day.

[hatrack]

25. We're not ruminants - it doesn't work that way

.

[cstanleytech]

38. To be honest I think when it comes down to it that its going to be a combo of things that

are causing it from our purely large population to our industry and our roads and parking lots which act as deserts and heat sinks to our houses which we cool and then the heat from the AC we cool them with has to go somewhere also our damming of rivers to create artificial lakes.
In other words is a huge ass list.

[YOHABLO]

2. It's methane gas that Republican's pull out of their ass.

[cstanleytech]

39. Wouldnt most Repugnants first remove their heads from their anus for the gas to escape?

Or do they have a blowhole?

[milestogo]

3. A room full of Republicans must have a lot of hot air in it

so I can understand why he thinks this way.

[Warpy]

4. Well, he's right but not for the reason he thinks

(If he's capable of actual thought, that is)

The truth is that 7 billion of us needing cooking fires and biomass to eat are definitely contributing to warming through overcultivation and overgrazing marginal land and increasing desertification. We're also on our way to 12 billion by 2050. That is scary beyond belief.

With increasing atmospheric methane, a more powerful greenhouse gas, we might already be past the point of no return.

[Fast Walker 52]

13. That is true. Also, internal combustion engines generate a not insignificant amount of heat

whereas electric cars wouldn't

[duhneece]

16. Actually, at the level you suggest, he IS right...

Think of all the cold rooms with no heat source warming up when the room was really packed with humans.

I'm not suggesting he's SO right about the rest, but I gotta say, it's an interesting thought I'd not heard or thought of before. But it makes it that much more important to make the changes we need to make to reduce climate change.

[cstanleytech]

40. Hmm but to create the batteries and build those cars still takes industry as they cant be grown

and that industry from mining to smelting to assembling it takes energy in varies forms not to mention when the vehicle is completed it has to be transported which = more energy needed.
In other words nothing is free not even clean energy sources as it all has an impact some of it is just spread out more and or is easier to mitigate.

[Fast Walker 52]

44. sadly, yes

[oldcynic]

37. might? might?

The point of no return was probably reached when humans figured out how to control fire. The only reason I'm grateful Hillary is not president it that now she can't be blamed for the climate disaster that has already arrived. Dig down under the middle-east conflicts and you will find lack of water. The following is only another aspect of the worldwide problem:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39442270
Melting ice sheets makes headlines because they can be measured. Who the hell cares about remote thirsty African cattle?

[TEB]

5. This clown wants to run for governor next election

[BumRushDaShow]

6. We have to make sure that we re-elect Tom Wolf (D) as our PA governor.

[TEB]

8. That wright

[ck4829]

7. Oh good God.

[packman]

9. Maybe he has a point - 98.2 x 5 billion (give or take)

491 billion degrees (and that ain't counting all the cats and dogs and wee little thingies running around on the earth).

MY GAWD - Now I know why the ice caps are melting !!!!



You know - this ties in very neatly with Repuke Health non-care, decrease the population and save the earth - Pure genius.

[Fast Walker 52]

14. science-- how does it work?

[angrychair]

21. Magic underwear?

[Fast Walker 52]

30. LOL!

[Xipe Totec]

10. Dim bulbs produce hardly any heat (or light) at all. nt

[Fast Walker 52]

12. and solar panels suck up the sunlight and make the planet colder!

the stupid, it burns.

[forgotmylogin]

18. So that's why they're trying to kill us all?

[Nitram]

19. It is clear that many conservativews think science is just whatever your current opinion is.

[angrychair]

20. Yes.

[Mc Mike]

23. Typical repug. Truculent, stupid, supremely cocksure. Rec, nt.

[mdbl]

24. Actually, it's all the methane coming out of Repuglican's like his mouth

[guillaumeb]

26. So if we all turn up our air conditioners,

and open up the doors,

the problem of climate warming will be solved?

Or, we could all sit in our refrigerators and bring down our body temperature.

[Snackshack]

27. 250-400 BTU's...per human...

I think he is on to something here...

/facepalm

This is right up there with wind farms are bad because the drag they cause would pull the Earth out of its orbit.

[OregonBlue]

28. A Fox News viewer.

[jeanmarc]

29. What an idiot

We can't keep electing idiots as governors.

[IronLionZion]

33. The growing population is a big part of the problem

the growing world population is contributing to global warming, but mainly because of using more resources for industry and land for farming while destroying forests.

But it can be managed. Come on people. Anyone who has lived a few decades knows that air and water pollution used to be much worse back in the day in Western industrialized countries like the USA. Our population was obviously much lower back then. Pollution has gotten better through better policy and planning even though our population has grown.

Even the hole in the Ozone layer has been getting smaller and is expected to be closed completely in 20-30 years unless it gets Trumped.

[rickford66]

35. Let me think about this in simple terms.

A person get their energy from stored energy from the food they eat. So there's some loss there. Some of the ingested energy is turned into kinetic energy. People move etc. So there may be an actual loss of heat from people. A crowd in a closed room doesn't take into account the ingested energy from food. I haven't studied thermo since the mid 60's so I know some others out there will have something to say about my analysis, one way or the other.

I should have added: a person is in effect a heater. There are no 100% efficient heaters or any devices known to science.

[truthisfreedom]

41. Doing the best we can? Trump is undoing as fast as he can.

That's not "doing the best we can".

[tclambert]

42. Just when you think people can't get any dumber . . .

along comes a Republican Congressman. If it's not something about climate change, they'll say something about rape.

[lunatica]

43. Another reason to deny health care. Less people, less global heating

[muriel_volestrangler]

46. Clearly, we should replace the warm-blooded humans with lizards (nt)

[dembotoz]

47. cause he's hot blooded check it and see, got a fever of 103...cmon voters do ya do more than dance

hot blooded hot blooded

[TexasBushwhacker]

48. My cousin and I went through menopause at the same time

My aunt said we were the cause of global warming. Pretty good joke for an elderly elementary school teacher.