The Midmorning Refill: Fear not, Rep. Shimkus says God has promised world won’t end via global warming

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If you read one thing today . . .

Please sit down before you read this one. One of the GOP candidates to take over the leadership of the House Energy Committee is Illinois Rep. John Shimkus, perhaps one of the biggest climate change deniers in the whole House of Representatives (he’s the one who worried that curbing carbon emissions might take away a food source for plants). Having Shimkus in charge of shaping energy legislation would be like putting Homer Simpson in charge of safeguarding the donuts. Doh. Shimkus’ latest global warming rebuttal comes from the Bible. It seems God promised Noah that he would never again destroy the earth by natural calamity, or something like that. From Salon:

Shimkus continues: “I believe that is the infallible word of god, and that’s the way it is going to be for his creation… The earth will end only when God declares its time to be over. Man will not destroy this earth. This earth will not be destroyed by a flood.”

Overheard:

Add N.J. Gov. Chris Christie to the list of high-profile Republicans who are skeptical about global warming. As if the opinion of most credible scientists in the world wasn’t enough. The HuffPo’s Sam Stein quotes Christie at a Toms River town hall meeting:

Mankind, is it responsible for global warming? Well I’ll tell you something. I have seen evidence on both sides of it. I’m skeptical — I’m skeptical. And you know, I think at the at the end of this, I think we’re going to need more science to prove something one way or the other.