Rep. Rohrabacher: Global Warming May Have Been Caused By ‘Dinosaur Flatulence’

[Ian David]

This week, Congress held its first hearing on the landmark IPCC report on climate change. That report concluded that global warming is “unequivocal” and human activity is the main driver, “very likely” causing most of the rise in temperatures since 1950.

During the hearing, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) — one of the 87 percent of congressional Republicans who do not believe in man-made global warming — questioned the authors of the report about a period of dramatic climate change that occured 55 million years ago. “We don’t know what those other cycles were caused by in the past. Could be dinosaur flatulence, you know, or who knows?’



Presumably, Rohrabacher was referencing a period known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Then, as in now, “sharp rises in temperature were initiated and driven by large spikes in greenhouse gases. … It took over 100K years for the ocean, atmosphere, and temperatures to return to their previous state. The result was a mass extinction event that took millions of years to recover from.” But scientists believe that massive methane releases from the ocean floors — not dinosaur farts — were the cause.

In sharp contrast to Rohrabacher, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) delivered an opening statement recommending mandatory caps on global warming pollution and calling out conservatives for rejecting science. “For twelve years, the leadership in the House of Representatives stifled all discussion and debate of global warming. That long rejection of reality is over, to the relief of Members on both sides of the aisle.”

More (including transcript and video link):
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/10/dino-flatulence/

[Canuckistanian]

1. How can anyone be so stupid and still stand upright?

Seriously. How do they even dress themselves in the morning?

[Ian David]

2. Standing upright is the only way he can keep his hands free for masturbating. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

6. And throwing feces at other members of the troupe.. n/t

[radfringe]

23. if he had a second brain it would be lonely

[HereSince1628]

3. Not only does this administration reshape history, the GOP

remakes every aspect of knowledge. Beware the coming darkness. They may last hundreds of years.

[LibDemAlways]

4. I hate to admit that Dana Rohrabacher

attended the same high school I did. As I recall, athletic coaches did double duty teaching some of the science classes. Shows, doesn't it?

[Dr.Phool]

5. That turd should know something about flatulence

[chieftain]

7. Actually, dinosaur flatulence is an apt description for

the fetid emissions coming from troglodyte RWers like Rohrbacher.

[damntexdem]

8. Data Rohrabacher may have been caused by dinosaur flatulence.

He used to be my 'representative' -- and that was so long ago, it's such a shame that he's still in Congress.

And the real joke is that the methane-hydrate releases, initiated then by volcanism, may in future be initiated by human-caused global warming, and really drive us all over the edge.

[Shoelace]

9. Rohrabacher got money from Abramoff, needs to be exposed

for the lowdown crook that he is. Anybody remember the Medawar scandal in Orange County, Ca. that he was involved in? Multi-million dollar fraud.
This guy is in serious need of a recall petition immediately.

I heard him on CSpan as he accused Pelosi of wanting to fly in a private jet at the cost of 100k plus - next time he mentioned it he upped the cost per flight to 1 million + bucks. What an effing idiot!

More from TMPmuckracker here:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/11/4/14551/2376

[niyad]

15. welcome to DU--and thanks for that link. I had forgotten that little tidbit.

[Shoelace]

17. thanks Niyad, great to be here!

and have to say that after hearing that rep., he's now my target for exposure and I'm darned good at ferreting out past deeds.
Just a rumor I heard but think that he also was instrumental in trying to help Unocal get that infamous pipeline through Afghanistan way back when. Will report on that when I find out more.

Eat your heart out Rove, you got nothing on us for digging up those dirty little secrets that y'all hide behind!



:kick: :kick: :kick:

[longship]

10. We got rid of the Hayworth...

Why couldn't we have gotten rid of this numb-nuts, too?

Two peas from the same pod. Shoulda happened.

[DrDan]

11. Jesus is this guy dumb

[LWolf]

12. What an awesome statement.

He needs no help at all in making the global warming deniers sound like imbeciles. :evilgrin:

[rodeodance]

13. his silly comments will be forever enshirned in the Congressional record.

[ninkasi]

14. You know what's scary to me?

As stupid as this guy is, enough people voted for him to put him in Congress. I am constantly amazed at the low intellect, and stupidity of the American public. The conservatives ones, anyway, I guess, because they seem to have absolutely no ability for critical thinking. It's depressing. Imagine what it must be like to be an intelligent Democrat in Congress right now, trying to debate with these cretins.

[Orangepeel]

16. He believes in dinosaurs? what will the fundies think?

:D

[Ian David]

20. Of course there were dinosaurs. That's how Adam and Eve rode to work. n/t

[Orangepeel]

24. Oh, right! Duh! I forgot that they just missed the Ark. (n/t)

[depakid]

18. What the hell is wrong with that district

that they keep sending a certifiable embarrassment back to Congress. Oklahoma I can understand, but Southern California?

[knight_of_the_star]

19. It's GOP central once you get past LA

I lived there for 21 years, trust me. It's because there's so many Navy and Marine bases, once you get outside of San Diego and LA you get a lot of GOP voters in between the two, a lot because of tax issues sadly enough.

[Eurobabe]

21. But GOD created the dinosaurs on the 7th day

according to the Fundies. Watch Friends of God, and you'll see schoolkids brainwashed by some guy who looks like the CrocHunter in Creationist garb.

[Vinca]

22. More likely it's Republican flatulence - there's lots of that. nt

[Joanne98]

25. Put it on Youtube....