Jon Stewart To House Science Committee: 'Are You F-cking Kidding Me?!?!?' (Video)

Jon Stewart took a moment to talk about the weekend's climate change march in New York, and wondered why it's even necessary to have a march about global warming -- after all, isn't the climate science settled? Ah, but then he remembered: there's this thing called the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, which is largely made up of Republicans who think that science is whatever Koch Industries says it is. Stewart looked at last week's hearing on the Obama administration's new carbon emissions rules, which as we've already noted included Indiana congressgoober Larry Bucshon explaining he doesn't believe scientists, since all their big-money research depends on finding evidence of global warming.

Stewart sympathized with White House scientific adviser John Holdren, whom he cast as "the hearing's Sisyphus...charged with the impossible task of pushing a million pounds of idiot up a mountain.” In addition to Bucshon, Holdren had to endure the insufferable Steve Stockman, who wanted to know why, since NASA scientists say that "global wobbling" ended the Ice Age, modern climate projections don't similarly look at global wobbling instead of blaming poor innocent CO2. How can you make projections without that "most important factor," Mr. Science Guy, huh? Holdren patiently explained that shifts in the Earth's tilt and orbit did indeed end the Ice Age -- over time scales of 22,000 to 100,000 years, not the less than 200 years since the Industrial Revolution started pumping CO2 into the atmosphere. And then there was Dana Rohrabacher, who wanted to know how high CO2 concentrations would have to be before actually harming humans. "Boom!" said Stewart. "How can CO2 be dangerous when I can still breathe?"

Holdren's reply was just wonderful, starting with a deadpan, "Vice Chairman Rohrabacher, I always enjoy my interactions with you," and then getting on to the science: No, CO2 isn't a concern because it's directly poisonous (at current atmospheric concentrations), but because it's warming the planet, and that is very bad. OK, sure, but we can still breathe, right? Teach the controversy! Hear from both sides -- the scientists AND the oil industry.

Oh, and before you tell your kids to wash their hands after they take a shit so they don’t spread disease? Maybe we should also spend an equal amount of time hearing from Big Fecal.

This is a terrific segment -- and with this crowd of bozos, Stewart has a target-rich environment. Watch and enjoy.

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