Caroline Lucas takes down a US politician’s ridiculous explanation for rising sea levels

caroline lucas
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Republican lawmaker Mo Brooks recently denied climate change using a very strange argument. Brooks, who is on the US’ House Science, Space and Technology Committee, argued that rising sea levels are due to the fact that rocks are falling into the ocean.

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas reacted in the best way possible.

Falling rocks 

Brooks, the US Representative for Alabama’s 5th congressional district, made the claim during a meeting on climate change. He said:

Read on...

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Every time you have that soil or rock or whatever it is that is deposited into the seas, that forces the sea levels to rise, because now you have less space in those oceans, because the bottom is moving up.

Brooks also said Antarctica is gaining ice, not losing it. But as a 2017 NASA report shows, ice levels in both Antarctica and the Arctic are at a record low. And ice loss is accelerating.

The counterargument

Philip Duffy, a climate scientist present at the meeting, responded to the notion that rocks falling from places like the White Cliffs of Dover are playing a key role in this rapid change:

I’m pretty sure that on human time scales, those are minuscule effects.

People on Twitter also reacted to the lawmaker’s claim:

There are Republicans in positions of power in the US who deny the reality of climate change. And these people are helping to shape the US’ environmental policy. It’s truly frightening that such people are in the position where they can act on these ridiculous notions.

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Featured image via screengrab / Wikimedia

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