Idiot of the Week: GOP Congressman asks Forest Service to Move the Moon's Orbit to Combat Climate Change

Here's one that will make you question how in the world people get elected to office. This U.S. Congressman asked a Forest Service official if they could change the moon's orbit to combat climate change. Well, at least he understands the climate is changing. But the Forest Service, let alone NASA, is not capable of changing the Moon's orbit (and what does that have to do with global warming? ?)  Even Russian newspapers called him an Idiot! 

Here's the story

(Image: Idiot of the week: Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas))

Lawmaker Asks Head-Scratching Question About Changing Earth And Moon’s Orbit To Fight Climate Change People 

From theHill.com 6/9/21 

“Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) on Tuesday, June 8, asked a representative from the U.S. Forest Service if it was possible to alter the orbit of the moon or the Earth as a way of combating climate change, though it was unclear if he was being serious.

Gohmert received a dumbfounded laugh from a National Forest Service official when the Texas Republican asked if it was possible to somehow change the orbit of the moon and the Earth in order to combat climate change. .

Gohmert was speaking with Jennifer Eberlien, associate deputy chief of the National Forest System, during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing. ‘I understand from what’s been testified to the Forest Service and the BLM [Bureau of Land Management], you want very much to work on the issue of climate change,’ Gohmert said to Eberlien, adding that a past director of NASA had once told him that orbits of the moon and the Earth were changing.”

"I would have to follow up with you on that one, Mr. Gohmert," Eberlien responded.

"Well, if you figure out a way that you in the Forest Service can make that change, I'd like to know," Gohmert added.

RUSSIAN MEDIA CALLS IT - Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda picked up the story, publishing it with a headline that read: "And let's change the orbit of the moon: 'The dumbest guy in the U.S. Congress' voiced a new idea." Gohmert was a key promoter of former President Donald Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 election was "rigged" or "stolen." The congressman filed a groundless lawsuit in a bid to give then-Vice President Mike Pence the legal authority to single-handedly overturn the election's results, but it was rejected by a U.S. District Court judge appointed by Trump.

WHAT NASA SAYS 

 As NASA explains in a blog post, Earth's orbit changes from being close to perfectly circular to being slightly more elliptical in a cycle that takes about 100,000 years. The orbit is currently around as close to being circular as it can be.

The angle at which the Earth tilts also shifts slightly or "wobbles" on its axis over the course of tens of thousands of years. These changes are called Milanković cycles after Milutin Milanković, the Serbian astronomer who first hypothesized them. 

MOON ORBITAL SHIFTS DO NOT AFFECT GLOBAL WARMING: These shifts affect Earth's climate in both the short-term and long-term, though they have a relatively minor impact on the planet's seasons and are not behind global warming, according to NASA. Astronomers have long observed that the Earth's moon is slowly drifting away, moving about an inch away every year.