Not to get depressing on a Monday, but people who hope that our government will be the engine of important and needed societal change would do well to remember that our public policy is often only as good as the most crackpotty member of Congress involved in it. And, as it turns out, we elect a lot of crackpots to office. To wit, here's a video of Representative John Shimkus, who represents Illinois' 19th District, speaking with climate-change-denying pseudoscientist Lord Christopher Monckton about how man-made carbon emissions are "plant food."
Shimkus basically maps out a world where, prior to the Industrial Revolution, no plant life existed, because we hadn't yet set into motion mass production of their "food." In this scenario, plants actually sprung to life shortly after the invention of the Watt steam engine in the 18th century.
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Kevin Grandia: The Republican's global warming amateur hour
MORE:
Shimkus: Capping C02 Emissions Will "Take Away Plant Food" [Progress Illinois]
Rep Shimkus Says We Need Uncapped Carbon Emissions Because Carbon is "Plant Food" [Yglesias]
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