Newt Gingrich, a self-proclaimed “amateur paleontologist,” said Monday that the Earth’s rising temperature is not a major issue.
“The age of the dinosaurs was dramatically warmer than this is right now and it didn’t cook the planet,” he said on CNN’s “Crossfire,” as recorded by the Huffington Post. “In fact, life was fine.”
Gingrich said that people have no right to determine Earth’s correct temperature.
“Assume for a minute that we have the capacity to actually decide the planet’s temperature,” he said. “What kind of hubris does it take to say, I know exactly what this planet’s temperature ought to be and I’m going to manage it to that effect?”
The former House Speaker said people are actually enjoying the warmer weather.
“The number of people leaving Minnesota this evening to get to the Caribbean versus the number of people leaving the Caribbean to try to get to Minnesota would argue that slightly warmer wouldn’t be a crisis,” Gingrich said.
Gingrich, in addition to claiming to be a paleontologist, has also previously declared himself an historian.
