Political Cartoonist Tom Toles: Perry and the 'Texas Miracle'

[flpoljunkie]

Speaking of climate change, how about their weird exchange where Perry seemingly compared the 2% of scientists who deny climate change is real or man-made--or, perhaps himself, to Galileo!

Sep 8, 2011 12:16am
Rick Perry, Galileo and Global Warming

By Z. Byron Wolf
@zbyronwolf

Texas Gov. Rick Perry clung to his skepticism of climate change science in Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate when he was asked if he believes man-made climate change is happening.

“The science is not settled on this. The idea that we would put Americans’ economy at jeopardy based on scientific theory that’s not settled yet to me is just nonsense,” Perry said. “Just because you have a group of scientists who stood up and said here is the fact. Galileo got outvoted for a spell,” he said.

Perry was referencing the Galileo affair of the 1600′s when the scientist was accused of heresy for his scientific theories. Through his telescopic findings, Galileo offered support for heliocentrism, the scientific theory first developed by Copernicus that the sun is stationary and the planets revolved around it, but this was in direct conflict with scientific and philosophical theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy, who believed the Earth was the center of the universe, and the Catholic Church, which adhered to a literalist interpretation of Scripture, such as Psalm 104:5 which reads “the Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.”

Galileo underwent a trial in 1633 for his book “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems,” which compared the theories of Copernicus and Ptolemy. Galileo was convicted of grave suspicion of heresy” and was sentenced to house arrest for the duration of his life.

In 2000, Pope John Paul II issued an apology for the mistakes committed by Catholics over the past 2,000 years.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/rick-perry-galileo-and-global-warming/

[Botany]

1. “The science is not settled on this." Rick Perry

From an April 2011 article that was based on real science

http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/2011/04/29/texas-wildfires-rage-amidst-historic-drought-conditions-denial-of-science-in-washington-dc-confronted-by-climate-reality/

Texas wildfires rage amidst historic drought conditions. Denial of science in Washington, DC, confronted by climate reality.

"It’s not just because the temperature is higher, it’s a combination of changes that are set in motion by the changing climate," said David Cleaves,
the climate change adviser to the chief of the U.S. Forest Service (Climate Central, April 27). “What’s happening today in Texas and the Southwest
should be a wake-up call on climate change. These are the kinds of conditions that we expect to see more often as climate warms,” said Dr. Julia Cole,
Professor of Geosciences, University of Arizona (Project on Climate Science, April 25)

snip

It is hard to say exactly why this drought and the associated fires have been so persistent and devastating, but some experts note that long-term
climate change may play a role.

"It’s not just because the temperature is higher, it’s a combination of changes that are set in motion by the changing climate," said David Cleaves, the
climate change advisor to the chief of the U.S. Forest Service, part of the Department of Agriculture. He added that rising temperatures and the potential
for more frequent extreme weather events — both heavy rainfall as well as extended drought — could conspire to make conditions that much more
conducive to fire.

"It starts with a lot of rain and a flush of growth, followed by extreme drought," Cleaves said. "So you have even more vegetation to burn than you would
have normally had because of the rain part, but then it’s drier because of the ." This has played out to some extent in Texas, where the summer
of 2010 was unusually wet, and the drought conditions that followed have left plenty of dry vegetation to serve as "fuel" for the fires.

[flpoljunkie]

2. Half of Texas is ablaze. Graphic illustration link from the Texas Forest Service.

Link: http://ticc.tamu.edu/Response/FireActivity/

[Botany]

3. thanx for posting the toon!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x766231

[flpoljunkie]

5. Austin through the smoke haze...

Ralph Barrera AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
As residents continue to sift through their belongings from the various Central Texas fires the Austin area has seen an evident haze in the air from the smoke. This is a view from the Capital of Texas highway scenic overlook looking east toward the Austin skyline.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Perry is on the side of The Inquisition, of course.

I guess he thinks people won't notice that.

[GeorgeGist]

6. The Science says ...

Rick Perry is an evil idiot.

[efhmc]

7. The acerage of Texas is 172,044,800 acres.

The estimated number of acres that are now burning or have burned since January are 3.5 million.

[Puzzler]

8. Comparing yourself to Galilieo, Newton or Einstein is common ...

... theme with cranks*. However, they tend to be loners, and not career politicians.

(see Martin Gardner's "Scientific Fads and Fallacies", Dover Publications)