The House is not a legitimate political body as long as Lamar Smith is science committee chairman

[ck4829]

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) — who has spent his career cozying up to fossil fuel interests, dismissing the threat of climate change and harassing federal climate scientists — is now arguing that pumping the atmosphere full of carbon dioxide is “beneficial” to global trade, crop production and the lushness of the planet.

Rather than buying into “hysteria,” Americans should be celebrating the plus sides of a changing climate, Smith argues in an op-ed published Tuesday in The Daily Signal, a news website published by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“The benefits of a changing climate are often ignored and under-researched,” Smith said. “Our climate is too complex and the consequences of misguided policies too harsh to discount the positive effects of carbon enrichment.”

Increased carbon dioxide, Smith writes, promotes photosynthesis, resulting in a “greater volume of food production and better quality food” and “lush vegetation” that “assists in controlling water runoff, provides more habitats for many animal species, and even aids in climate stabilization, as more vegetation absorbs more carbon dioxide.” Warmer temperatures, he notes, results in longer growing seasons

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lamar-smith-climate-change-beneficial_us_59765a54e4b0e201d577466d

The ignorance, profound ignorance, how does someone even reach this level?

First off, just because there is no frost there, it doesn't mean the land is necessarily arable, it may not have nutrients and most likely does not have the quality of soil required for plants to grow.

CO2 doesn't mean more plants either, even if the land was arable, and CO2 causes plants to grow, as they grow more because of high CO2, they deactivate genes which enables defenses against crop-eating insects.

Going from denying climate change to embracing it. Does anybody notice this?

All this talk about shipping lines and new land (To shove dissidents), who does that benefit? I can think of one increasingly authoritarian megalomaniac who would definitely be "rootin'" for this.

And let's not forget that tundras aren't wastelands devoid of life; indigenous flora, fauna, and, oh yeah, people live up there. Inuits are one such example, Siberians, who the above authoritarian megalomaniac actually doesn't like very much, and more. Smith may as well have called for their extermination with this.

If not for our species and if not for our planet, where is the line? It might be time to consider getting new Guards for our future security.