Texas A&M Climate Scientist Tells Rick Perry He's Wrong about Galileo

Using a global warming denier talking point that is completely backwards, GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry compared “climate skeptics” to Galileo recently. To anyone who knows anything about climate science or Galileo, Rick Perry was completely off on this analogy, and actually has it backwards.

rick perry caricature

Dozens of Texas climate scientists have tried to make Rick Perry come to his senses on this matter, in the midst of Texas suffering from the hottest summer of any state in known U.S. history, and tremendous wildfires and drought. One more scientist from Rick Perry’s old university, Texas A&M, tried to set the record straight for Perry recently as well. Here’s more from San Antonio Express-News:

Gerald North, A&M’s distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences and oceanography, puts 35 years of experience behind the view that there’s no longer any doubt that the planet is warming.

The evidence has been piling up for 30 years now.”…

In the past quarter-century, North said, scientific models have shown again and again that the planet is getting hotter and that humans are causing it. He estimated that 98 percent of the scientists who have done serious research on the subject agree on both points….

[North] took issue with Perry’s decision to invoke Galileo Galilei, who was vilified when he asserted that the world isn’t the center of the universe.

Galileo, Perry said during a GOP presidential debate, “got outvoted for a spell.” North said the governor misstated the controversy surrounding the 17th century physicist and astronomer.

“I think Galileo’s fight was with a bunch of religious fanatics,” North said. “I don’t think that’s the situation here. Galileo’s fight was not with a bunch of other scientists.”

If anything, he said, Perry’s position is “exactly the opposite” — in other words, on the side of the deniers of science.

Somehow, I don’t think Rick Perry will pay any attention to this, unfortunately.

Image Credit: Attribution Some rights reserved by DonkeyHotey

 

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