The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. May 18, 2018 Republican Rep. Mo Brooks Blames Coastal Erosion for Rising Seas ---------------------------------------------------------------- Bridenstine's new comments came a day after Alabama Republican Congressmember Mo Brooks suggested during a House Science committee hearing that coastal erosion-and not greenhouse gas emissions-is to blame for rising sea levels. Rep. Brooks made the comments as he questioned Philip Duffy, president of the Woods Hole Research Center. Rep. Mo Brooks: "What about the white cliffs of Dover, California, where time and time again you're having the waves crash against the shorelines, and time and time again, you're having the cliffs crash into the sea? All that displaces water, which forces it to rise, does it not?" Philip B. Duffy: "I'm pretty sure that on human time scales, those are minuscule effects." President Trump has dismissed climate change as a Chinese hoax and has ordered the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.