It's not clear exactly who Jeb Bush is talking to when he talks about climate change. There's a possibility he might in part actually be talking to the deniers in his own party. But if that's the case, this early in the process when shoring up primary support matters most, it's unlikely we'll get much clarification on stuff like this:
During his first campaign stop Tuesday as an official presidential candidate, Jeb Bush took issue with a leaked document authored by Pope Francis in which the Catholic leader calls for a global effort to combat climate change. “First of all, Pope Francis is the most extraordinary leader. He speaks with such clarity, speaks so differently. He’s drawing people back in the faith, which as a converted Catholic now of 25 years, I think is really cool,” Bush said.
But Bush disagreed with the sentiment Pope Francis expressed in the document. “Numerous scientific studies indicate that the greater part of the global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases … given off above all because of human activity,” Pope Francis wrote in the encyclical, a papal letter to bishops. “I hope I’m not going to get castigated for saying this by my priest back home, but I don’t get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinals or my pope,” Bush said.
It was that last part that made me laugh out loud. A more accurate rendition might have read, 'I don’t get policy from my bishops or my cardinals or my pope—"
when they threaten tightly held conservative pseudo-scientific nonsense.'"
- Well, Mr. Bush, we just had the hottest May on record and 2015 is on track to be the hottest year or among the hottest on record.
- We may yet register in the geologic record -- as a mass extinction event. But fear not, fellow ice-age megafauna, if any large mammals survive our own looming toxic success, it will probably be us, along with the cuddly furballs or delicious critters we choose to save.
- Not exactly science, but it's worth mentioning in the context of RWNJ denial of reality, that an NRA board member in Texas, naturally, knows exactly who to blame in Charleston: the black guy!
- For the first time, a Mars-sized exoplanet is detected.
- Astronomy picture of the day website turns 20 years old. If that doesn't make you feel the years pressing down, Jagged Little Pill also turned 20 this week!
- Tomorrow on Sunday Kos we'll dissect a zombie lie: the 1970s global cooling myth. In the meantime, feel free to visit the Amazon review site for Mann and Kump's new edition of Dire Predictions and add your own—over the voice of the usual suspects.