GOP lawmaker earnestly asks if the U.S. Forest Service can alter the Earth's orbit

Some United States lawmakers seem prepared to do everything except eat less meat and invest in green infrastructure to curb climate change. One, apparently, would rather alter our solar system — a suggestion he thinks is worth looking into, Forbes reported on Tuesday.

During a House Natural Resources Hearing with the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R) asked, apparently earnestly, if there was anything the two government agencies could do to combat global warming by changing "the course of the moon's orbit or the Earth's orbit around the sun?" He then stated that such an interstellar overhaul would obviously have "profound effects" on the Earth's climate.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.