Rick Lee

rlee@ydr.com

Update, July 20, 2018:

Scott Wagner, no longer a state Senator but now the Republican candidate for governor, is back in the news on climate change after calling an 18-year-old woman "young and naive" when she asked about it.

He also had been poked fun at by John Oliver back after the his comment about the earth and sun.

Original story:

Two Pennsylvania lawmakers who have a say in the education budget each veered from the science books recently when talking about Earth science.

Earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R, Dillsburg, told a hall full of his 4th Congressional District constituents that trees are at least partly to blame for pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.

Earlier this week, state Sen. Scott Wagner, who intends to run for governor, told a room of natural gas drilling advocates that climate change -- global warming -- is caused by body heat and Earth's apparent slow death spiral into the sun.

Joe Rao, an associate and lecturer at the Hayden Planetarium in New York, called Wagner's comment "total, utter nonsense," adding that if he had a copy of Wagner's speech, it would best be shredded for cat litter.

"This is just a statement of stupidity," Rao said.

The Hayden Planertarium is perhaps best known for its director, Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist host of the TV series "Cosmos."

Wagner, R-Spring Garden Township, had told his audience, "I haven't been in a science class in a long time, but the Earth moves closer to the sun every year -- you know, the rotation of the Earth. We're moving closer to the sun."

He also said, "We have more people ... you know, humans have warm bodies. So is heat coming off? Things are changing ... but I think we are, as a society, doing the best we can."

"If the gentleman said he had not been in a science class in a long time, he certainly bore that out," Rao said. "The Earth's temperatures is based on its axis, not how close or far away from the sun it is."

Perry's comments had triggered mocking coverage from several national news organizations. He blamed the public ridicule on "misrepresentation by the media," although a video of the town hall meeting where he made that allegation remains on his Facebook page.

On Wednesday, Wagner ignored a request to further explain his belief about body heat and the Earth's orbit contributing to climate change.

Instead, in an emailed response, Wagner stated, "I believe that the climate is changing everyday, and some of that change is certainly man-made. I think that we have a responsibility to future generations to be good stewards, and I support efforts to do that.

"However, the real question isn't 'Is the climate changing?' but what role should the government play in trying to alter it."

Wagner further explained he needed to weigh any climate change action against the Commonwealth's economy.

More: Watch: Scott Perry says Chesapeake Bay pollution partially caused by God

"Governor Wolf and Barack Obama's plans to shut down the coal industry and tax the natural gas industry out of existence aren't just wrong, but they would cost working class people their jobs and (Pennsylvania) families access to affordable and home grown energy," Wagner said.

The Union of Concerned Scientists lists a number of scientifically-based theories for global warning on its website. Body heat and the Earth's proximity to the sun are not among them.

And, Russian dynamicists Gregoriy A. Krasinsky and Victor A. Brumberg determined in 2004 that the Earth is moving away from the sun at about 15 centimeters -- approximately 5 3/4 inches -- a year.

As for a specific cause for climate change, Rao said no one really knows. He said weather cycles in the past few millennia have had warm and cold periods. He noted that in the 1970's, "Reputable climatologists said we are on our way to another ice age."

Rao, whose background includes 30 years in earth sciences, confirmed the earth now is in a period of warming and that this period has been slowing since the late 1990s, early 2000s.

"I'm saying that we've seen it before," he said. "And, we've also seen some big drops (in temperature.)"

Commenters to a WITF story about Wagner's meeting with the drilling advocates ridiculed the senator for his climate change explanation, suggesting he should sit in on a science class.

More: Wagner launches Pa. governor campaign for those 'fed up' with Harrisburg

Joanne Kilgour, the director of the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter, also offered her reaction.

“Senator Wagner’s comments indicate that he is not only woefully underinformed about the settled science of climate change, but also that he is unprepared to address the consequences of a warming world," Kilgour said in an email.

Kilgour identified "increased flooding, more days with dangerous air quality, or more intense and destructive storms" as symptoms of global warming.

"If Sen. Wagner is not prepared to take action on climate change, he is ignoring an imminent threat to our environment, to justice, and to prosperity for the people of Pennsylvania," Kilgour said. "This is not the kind of representation we need in Harrisburg.”

A request for comment from the Wolf administration was passed on to the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. Communications director Beth Melena said, "Scott Wagner’s inability to understand or accept basic science is reflective of too much time spent in Harrisburg rubbing elbows with special interests."