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Scott Wagner is an American businessman and state senator from the state of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Republican Party. What did he say?
"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," Wagner, a York County state senator, said, according to StateImpact Pennsylvania. "We're moving closer to the sun."
He added, according to StateImpact's Katie Meyer, that, "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."
I haven't been in a science class in a long time...
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Scott Wagner Explains Climate Change: 'We're Moving Closer to the Sun'
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Don't steal... the IRS hates competition!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @08:30AM (12 children)
As the earth orbits the sun, it keeps accelerating inwards.
(Score: 3, Informative) by butthurt on Saturday April 01 2017, @09:12AM (9 children)
Right, but that doesn't constantly bring the Earth closer to the Sun. However, there's orbital eccentricity. When Mr. Wagner says "the earth moves closer to the sun every year" that's true--but it also moves farther from the Sun for half the year, from January until around early July.
Currently, the Earth reaches perihelion in early January, approximately 14 days after the December Solstice.
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsis#Perihelion_and_aphelion_of_the_Earth [wikipedia.org]
He should have waited about three more months because we're moving away from the sun right now.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday April 01 2017, @01:04PM (4 children)
And, being farther from the Sun, the world [wordpress.com] will warm up for summer... and this happens because hot babes go to the beach and the boys there are hot too and there are little clothing to keep their heat in... you know it makes sense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday April 01 2017, @10:07PM (3 children)
According to a Florida man interviewed by NASA,
Seasonal weather patterns are shaped primarily by the 23.5-degree tilt of our planet's spin axis, not by Earth's elliptical orbit. [...] During northern winter the north pole is tilted away from the Sun. Days are short and that makes it cold. The fact that we're a little closer to the Sun in January doesn't make much difference. It's still chilly -- even here in Florida!
-- https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast04jan_1/ [nasa.gov]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday April 01 2017, @11:51PM (2 children)
If this needed to come from NASA and was/is not taught in primary school, I think one should sue the school for the low quality of education it provided.
I mean, really? Is this not a basic fact any child should know? I learnt this in my 3rd year in the primary, in the same chunk with seasons and water cycle in nature. Granted, I was living in a East European country, under a communist regime, the school being influenced by the Russian rather academic style of education.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Sunday April 02 2017, @12:25AM (1 child)
> Is this not a basic fact any child should know?
My intent was as much to amuse as to inform. I didn't mean to be insulting.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday April 02 2017, @05:33AM
> I didn't mean to be insulting.
You reckon Scott Wagner reads SN? (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @05:03PM
Good point. By the new Trump standard, the Wagner statement might have to count as true.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 05 2017, @08:47PM (2 children)
Like all the planets, the orbit of the earth is slowly moving away from the sun. This is because the sun is losing mass in solar wind and as it is converted into energy. This movement away has not caused cooling over time because the sun is getting hotter as it ages, at about the same rate. The sun is getting hotter because the helium being formed is denser than hydrogen.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday April 05 2017, @10:54PM
That makes sense. I suppose the tides are also causing the Earth to gradually move to a larger orbit.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Monday April 10 2017, @12:10PM
that seems like an incomplete statement - "denser than hydrogen, leading to more efficient fusion processes dominating".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_nucleosynthesis [wikipedia.org]
The transition from proton-proton to CNO (Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen) catalysis would increase energy output.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @04:02PM (1 child)
Nonsense. You're working off the Ball Earth model.
It seems pretty simple to me, even if the Earth is flat and 6,000 years old.
Perhaps dinosaurs were put there by the devil. They and their "black gold" exist to tempt man into destroying the beautiful planet god gave him.
He seems unable to resist the temptation. Logic, people! :)
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Sunday April 02 2017, @05:26AM
I was modelling the Earth as a zero-dimensional point, totally ignoring its rotation. The rotation brings us closer and farther from the Sun daily, not yearly. So he's partly right about that, too.