It’s Not Quite Gibberish

Steve Benen isn’t keen on acknowledging that a liberal reading of candidate for the seat of Senator from Georgia Herschel Walker’s (R) latest statement on climate change isn’t quite completely gibberish:

It’s against this backdrop that the Republican candidate tried to talk about climate change at a recent campaign event:

“Y’know, climate change — I’m gonna help y’all with that real quickly, and I’m gonna do it in the Wrightsville way, so you can understand what I’m saying. We in America have some of the cleanest air and cleanest water of anybody in the world. So what we do is, we’re gonna put from the Green New Deal, millions or billions of dollars cleaning our good air up. So all of a sudden — China and India ain’t putting nothing into cleaning that situation up. So all that bad air is still there. But since we don’t control the air, our good air decide to float over to China’s bad air. So when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So it moves over to our good air space. And now we got to clean that back up.”

It’s tempting to compare Walker’s comments to a student trying to do a book report about a book he obviously hasn’t read, but that’s not quite right: The way the Senate hopeful spoke, he seemed quite sincere, as if he were genuinely offering a meaningful tutorial about an important issue.

He was not. Walker’s comments were effectively gibberish — or more the point, this was the latest in a series of examples of the Georgia Republican addressing public policy with comments that were effectively gibberish.

In all fairness to Walker, a brief examination of his message is provided:

1. 

   Source: Statista.

   America have some of the cleanest air and cleanest water of anybody in the world. We’re certainly doing much better, due to environmental regulations, than we did 50-60 years ago. But the statement is irrelevant, because we’re not talking about pollution overall, but two types of pollution – CO₂ and methane emissions, which are the two molecules that trap solar radiation and that humanity’s technological artifacts emit as they consume fossil fuel energy. At right is a chart of 2020 emissions, and, yes, it shows China as #1, and the United States #2. That makes us a major polluter in this category, and if we don’t clean ourselves up, we’ll be shitting on ourselves – and our children.

2. So what we do is, we’re gonna put from the Green New Deal, millions or billions of dollars cleaning our good air up. So all of a sudden — China and India ain’t putting nothing into cleaning that situation up. This is an appeal the listeners’ prejudices, based on what they might do – cheat, given the chance. But China has a recent history of both cleaning their air and water up, and of polluting some more, and India recognizes its problems, although my impression. But, in the end, 13% is 13%, and just as atmosphere is shared, atmosphere can also stay in place – that is, entropy, to which Walker is appealing, is not a quick process. It can be a very slow process. Which means us cleaning up our emissions doesn’t mean the emissions of China will be immediately and substantially diluted.

Walker’s not just gibbering here, he’s just not right. His statements on other issues really are gibberish. Meanwhile, his opponent, Senator Warnock (D), talks sense.