‘Amateur Paleontologist’ Gingrich Accuses Climate Scientists of ‘Hubris’

‘Amateur Paleontologist’ Gingrich Accuses Climate Scientists of ‘Hubris’ (Mediaite)

With conservative commentators like Fox’s Stuart Varney using this winter’s unusually cold temperatures to deny global warming, CNN’s Crossfire held a climate change debate Monday that pitted advocate against skeptic. But things really got interesting when self-described “amateur paleontologist” Newt Gingrich asked the panel: “What’s the right temperature for the planet?”

“Assume for a minute that we have the capacity to actually decide the planet’s temperature,” Gingrich mused. “What kind of hubris does it take to say, I know exactly what this planet’s temperature ought to be and I’m going to manage it to that effect?”

Van Jones accepted Gingrich’s unusual challenge and risked being accused of “hubris” by stating that he would like the see the Earth’s temperature remain within the average that it has been for the last ten thousand years of human civilization.

“The age of the dinosaurs was dramatically warmer than this is right now and it didn’t cook the planet,” Gingrich responded. “In fact, life was fine.” He also said that Minnesotans escaping to the Caribbean this winter demonstrates that “slightly warmer wouldn’t be a crisis.”

Of course, if you believe in that other scientific phenomenon — evolution — you will know that when dinosaurs roamed the earth, the “life” Gingrich described did not include humans.