Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Republican Congressman Unveils Questionable Theory for Why Sea Levels Are Really Rising During Hearing on Climate Change

Republican Congressman Unveils Questionable Theory for Why Sea Levels Are Really Rising During Hearing on Climate Change
UNITED STATES - JULY 28: Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the Capitol on July 28, 2017. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

That's a new one.

Alabama Republican Representative Mo Brooks asked if rocks are causing sea levels to rise at a hearing by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology titled "Using Technology to Address Climate Change."

While questioning Philip Duffy, president of Woods Hole Research Center, about what, in addition to climate change, might be contributing to rising sea levels, Brooks interjected with his theory, which suggested erosion is the culprit:


Every single year that we’re on Earth, you have huge tons of silt deposited by the Mississippi River, by the Amazon River, by the Nile, by every major river system — and for that matter, creek, all the way down to the smallest systems. And every time you have that soil or rock whatever it is that is deposited into the seas, that forces the sea levels to rise. Because now you’ve got less space in those oceans because the bottom is moving up.

Brooks used the White Cliffs of Dover to support his theory, as well as California "where you have the waves crashing against the shorelines" and "you have the cliffs crash into the sea."

"All of that displaces the water which forces it to rise, does it not?" Brooks asked.

"I’m pretty sure that on human time scales, those are minuscule effects," Duffy replied.

Brooks then claimed that Antarctic ice is growing. Duffy countered that, saying that satellite records have documented "shrinkage of the Antarctic ice sheet and an acceleration of that shrinkage."

"I've got a NASA base in my district," Brooks said. "And apparently, they're telling you one thing and me a different thing."

But the NASA website notes that Antarctica's ice sheets have lost mass since 2002, and that "Sea level rise is caused primarily by two factors related to global warming: the added water from melting ice sheets and glaciers and the expansion of seawater as it warms."

The day after the hearing, the committee tweeted a Wall Street Journal op-ed denying that climate change causes rising sea levels.

Brooks' comments immediately garnered criticism.

"One lawmaker said temperatures were not rising, another brought up global cooling, and Mo Brooks suggested land erosion caused rising sea level on a global scale. These are all members of the Science Committee," wrote CNN's Andrew Kaczynski.

Retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly wrote: "Sad that some members on the science committee in the US House of Representatives don’t believe in science. @RepMoBrooks, I’m sure there is an open desk in a fifth grade classroom somewhere in your district."

"We need @BillNye to help out Rep. Mo Brooks and explain sea level rise," wrote one Twitter user, referring to the science educator and television personality."

Journalist Dan Rather also weighed in. "Climate change and resulting sea level rise is not fake news. And it can't be lost amidst all the other noise of our current news cycle," he said.

Others merely let the politician's words speak for themselves.

Speaking to CNN afterward, Duffy, who worked on climate change policy in the Obama administration, said that he expected skepticism from the committee and that he had never heard an explanation quite like the one Brooks provided.

"None of that is new," Duffy said. "They've been doing that forever."

Meanwhile, Jim Bridenstine, the new administrator of NASA, held a town hall at the agency's headquarters. Bridenstine had earlier come under fire during his Senate confirmation hearing for his past remarks denying climate change. This time, however, when questioned by a moderator, he appeared to have changed his mind.

"As far as my position on climate change and how it’s evolved, I’ll be very open,” Bridenstine said.

He continued:

I don’t deny that consensus that the climate is changing. In fact, I fully believe and know that the climate is changing. I also know that we humans beings are contributing to it in a major way. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. We’re putting it into the atmosphere in volumes that we haven’t seen, and that greenhouse gas is warming the planet. That is absolutely happening, and we are responsible for it.

More from News

Donald Trump
Roberto Smith/AFP via Getty Images

Trump Roasted For Immediately Backtracking On Tariffs For U.S. Automakers After Backlash

The backlash against President Donald Trump is coming hard and fast after he quickly announced a one-month exemption for the auto industry following criticisms of his decision to earlier announce tariffs for imports from Canada and Mexico.

Trump is now offering a one-month exemption on the steep new tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports for U.S. automakers, easing concerns that the freshly launched trade war could severely impact domestic manufacturing.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Jasmine Crockett
@Acyn/X

Jasmine Crockett Hilariously Shades Trump With Trolling Question About 'Immigrant Crime' During Hearing

Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas went viral after she shamed President Donald Trump with a question she posed to mayors about immigration during a House hearing that mocked him for his felony convictions—without naming him at all.

In May last year, Trump became the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes. The jury found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels to illegally influence the 2016 election.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ben Stiller; Barack Obama
Leon Bennett/WireImage; Getty Images/Getty Images for EIF & XQ

Ben Stiller Reveals Barack Obama Turned Down Offer To Make A Key Cameo In 'Severance'

Actor and Severance executive producer Ben Stiller revealed in an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he once approached former President Barack Obama to narrate a pivotal video for the hit Apple TV+ show only for Obama to decline the offer in an email.

Stiller hoped to cast former President Barack Obama as the voice of the anthropomorphic Lumon office building in the “Lumon is Listening” propaganda video featured in the season 2 premiere. Though Obama declined the offer, he reportedly responded by email, expressing that he’s a “big fan” of the show.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots of Jennifer Hudson and Common at a Knicks game
@BleacherReport/X

Common's Quick Reflexes Save Jennifer Hudson From Taking A Basketball To The Face

EGOT-winning singer/actor Jennifer Hudson narrowly missed being hit square in the face by a basketball while watching Tuesday's New York Knicks playoff game against the Golden State Warriors from courtside seats.

Fortunately, her beau sitting beside her, rapper Common, diverted the ball's trajectory away from Hudson's face in the nick of time, her glasses taking most of the hit after Knicks’ point guard Miles McBride lost control of the ball.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Ben Stein as the teacher in "Ferris Beuller's Day Off"; Donald Trump
Paramount Pictures; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

'Ferris Bueller' Clip Explaining Tariff Disaster In 1930 Goes Viral Amid Trump's Tariff War

People are nodding their heads after a clip from the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off in which Ben Stein's teacher character explains the disastrous results of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930 went viral after President Donald Trump's announced tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico.

The scene features a high school economics teacher, played by Ben Stein, lecturing his uninterested students about the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act—a real-life 1930 bill signed by President Herbert Hoover that raised tariffs on imported goods. The law, often blamed for exacerbating the Great Depression, has drawn comparisons to Trump’s recent trade policies.

Keep ReadingShow less