Texas Environmental Leader Attacks Scientists
Environmentalists in Texas have a long track record of ignoring science despite claiming to fight for it. This past weekend at a protest event in McAllen, Texas environmental leader Juan Mancias attacked geologists, claiming that those who study the science that deals with the earth’s physical structure are “ignorant people” and do not “know what they’re doing”:
“We have to change the mentality of how we think, that geologists know what they’re doing. Geologists are there for one thing and that’s to study the sediments, to study the make-up of all the rocks and every sediment in the Earth. There not there to tell us that they’re the experts in making holes in the ground, which is a man-made fault – you got to go 2,900 feet to make a man-made fault for disposal wells. 2,900 feet and you’re making a hole in the Earth and you connect all those lines with all the earthquakes that we’re having now, especially in the Big Bend area in West Texas, it’s eventually going to connect. All those little holes are going to connect and you know what you’re going to end up with? One big fault. And you know what’s going to happen? It’s going to change everything around us. If we don’t start saying something to these ignorant people who think that they know what they’re talking about because they’re geologists – I sat down there and argued with them, because I know that when the moon is full and the moon is new, it effects the tides of the oceans.”
Mancias gained notoriety for his comments prior to Hurricane Harvey, which he stated that he hoped the storm would hit Texas in “full force.” After the storm wrought destruction across southeast Texas, Mancias doubled-downed on his earlier comments, saying he was “thankful” for the destruction caused by the hurricane.
For several months, Mancias has openly considered a run for Congress. Should he run, he should perhaps consider expanding his knowledge of geology and science, as well as vocabulary and grammar to better grasp the word “denier”:
“I just don’t know what climate de-nee-ay means. I mean, I know a lot of big words, I just don’t know climate de-nee-ay.”