Field of Science

When you elect dumb legislators you get dumb legislation

It's axiomatic that if you elect dumb legislators you'll get dumb legislation, and considering the results of the last election, this is only the beginning. The only great thing about this is that it's not Lincolnland. Out west in big sky country, Joe Read, a Montana legislator, has proposed a "global warming" bill that cranks up the dumb.
Section 1. Public policy concerning global warming. (1) The legislature finds that to ensure economic development in Montana and the appropriate management of Montana’s natural resources it is necessary to adopt a public policy regarding global warming.
(2) The legislature finds:
(a) global warming is beneficial to the welfare and business climate of Montana;
(b) reasonable amounts of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere have no verifiable impacts on the environment; and
(c) global warming is a natural occurrence and human activity has not accelerated it.
(3) (a) For the purposes of this section, “global warming” relates to an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s surface.
(b) It does not include a one-time, catastrophic release of carbon dioxide.

This seems to say: 1. global warming isn't happening, 2. if it is happening, then it's not our fault, 3. global warming is a good thing anyways, so why worry?, and 4. if global warming turns out to be a catastrophe, we couldn't have done anything about it anyways. It only left out a sneering na na nana. Here you have a legislator who wants a state to legally deny science probably to prempt any federal attempt to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. As Steve Allen would say, Dumbth, and to the nth degree. Good luck Montana.

3 comments:

Eric said...

Stupid, yes. Immediately dangerous, not so clear. At least there doesn't seem to be anything to prevent teachers from discussing it otherwise (although I didn't bother to see just what Chap. 75 as a whole does). The real danger is in encouraging the attitude that science and reality can be anything you want it to be. Thank goodness Montana doesn't buy many schoolbooks, like the legislature of some other very large state to the south which will remain nameless and is stupider in more ways and more aggressive about it.

William M. Connolley said...

Open Mind has also commented on this: http://tamino.wordpress.com/2011/02/19/the-champion/

The Phytophactor said...

Thanks for the link. PP will have a look.