Abject Morons Respond to Cosmos, The World Set Free (Episode 12, June 1, 2014)

In case you're the one remaining person who doesn't know by now, Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist, an author, the director of the Hayden Planetarium, and the star of the newest Cosmos reboot. But more than that, like Sagan before him, he is an intellectual titan, an incredibly gifted and charismatic defender of science, a testament to our country's institutions of higher learning, and an outright national treasure.

Now, does that mean you can't question him? No. But it does means that, if you do, you had better bring your goddamn A game, or shut your silly, thoughtless mouth. Plain and simple. So let's see what kinda "A game" deniers brought after this week's Cosmos...

Here's a clueless meatball who thinks because CO2 is such a small percentage of the atmosphere it just can't have a major effect:

.@NASA @ClimateOfGavin Think CO2 hysteria harder to sell if you plot CO2 on a fair scale? #cosmos #actonclimate pic.twitter.com/umlwmXBJed

— Tom Nelson (@tan123) June 2, 2014

Somebody take away the ozone, which is a significantly smaller portion of the stratosphere where its concentration is greatest (up to 15 parts per million or 0.0015%) let alone the entire atmosphere (0.6 ppm or 0.00006%) than CO2 (400 ppm or 0.04%), over Tom Nelson's empty head, and see how quickly he changes his two functioning brain cells about the impact small amounts of molecules in our air can have. As Neil pointed out in the episode, the volume and mass of our atmosphere are enormous, so "small," a relative term here, gives you something equivalent to the size of the White Cliffs of Dover each year. That is to say, not really small at all.

Here's a bit of idiotic tone-trolling from someone who is obviously no relation to the executive producer of Cosmos (or, if he is, is probably no longer invited to family barbecues):

"Cosmos" is great but you'd think during the shilling for solar and wind power that @neiltyson would note we don't know how to store it.

— Emmett Macfarlane (@EmmMacfarlane) June 2, 2014

Neil is a shill for solar and wind power. Rrrrrriiiiigggggghhhhhttttt. Uh, dopey, we have many means of storage: hydrogen, batteries, thermal oil, thermal salt, etc. But, like, OMG, they're not perfect and might require more R&D, right, Emmett? Well, Neil was pretty clear about how solar technology was unfortunately abandoned for the very energy sources which have caused the planet to warm. Had it not lost research funding, we would have perfected storage options by now.

The world is full of people who are just plain fucking stupid and more than eager to advertise it apparently:

@ezralevant Funny how NATURAL #climatechange ended Mayans, Incans, Sumerians, but NOW it's all humanity's fault.

— Clay Johanson (@clayjohanson) June 2, 2014

Jaezuz fookin' Cheeeeeeroist, the Mayan collapse was natural? Natural?!

Why did the Mayan civilization collapse?

Because cleared land absorbs less solar radiation, less water evaporates from its surface, making clouds and rainfall more scarce. As a result, the rapid deforestation exacerbated an already severe drought—in the simulation, deforestation reduced precipitation by five to 15 percent and was responsible for 60 percent of the total drying that occurred over the course of a century as the Mayan civilization collapsed. The lack of forest cover also contributed to erosion and soil depletion.

Something calling itself "tkondaks" over at Salon thinks it's clever:


If halfwit Internet trolls like this tkondaks actually asked Santa for subscriptions to Science instead of Wrestling News, this stupidity would be self-correcting and not exist for me to highlight for your face-palming pleasure.

And I suspect that, only 24 hours since its airing, there will be many more attacks on Neil and Cosmos yet to come from some more high-profile and infamous sources, especially since it coincides with the release of a related Obama administration policy.

Look, you pathetic trolls, here's what you wanna do from now on... Assume you are an idiot, which you are, and intelligent people like Ann Druyan and Neil deGrasse Tyson actually know what the hell they're talking about, which they do. That way you don't give me endless opportunities to humiliate the shit out of you.

Climate change deniers, another way of saying "complete fucking idiots."