So-How much dirt would it take to raise the sea level?

[packman]

it’s a volume of earth equivalent to taking the top five inches of every one of the United States’ 9.1 million square miles of land area and using it to coat the bottom of the world’s oceans. That would push sea levels up by 3.3 millimeters.

(That's .129th of an inch)

But, remember: That sea level rise happens annually. So every year, we’d need to take the top five inches of the United States, roll it in a ball and drop it in the ocean to get the sort of sea level rise we’re currently seeing. Don’t worry, though; assuming that the depth of Earth’s crust is about 40 kilometers in the United States, it would take 309,000 years for us to get to the mantle

And here's the idiot Congressman who said that rocks in the ocean are the real culprit:

?t=5358

(Skip to 1:26 where the babbling begins)

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Don't tell Rep. Mo Brooks.

[Stallion]

2. Will Sponsor Legislation to Criminalize "Skipping Stones" Into Water

...to avoid sea level rise

[MuseRider]

3. Should we all send him rocks

and tell him to try to get the local pool to rise. That'll keep him busy for a while.

[Stallion]

5. He's Got Enough-His Head is Full of Them

[MuseRider]

9. I never thought of that!

Of course you are correct!

[bigmonkey]

4. Take his idea - it's the erosion of the ice off the land

He's right, in a way. The ice eroding/melting into water off Greenland and Antarctica is the culprit.

[greyl]

11. That's what makes what he said so fucking wacky!

What, he doesn't believe icebergs and glaciers melting into the ocean displace water or add to levels?
So ignorant.

[captain queeg]

6. I saw some scientist post that it would take 6.6 quadrillion pounds

That seemed a bit odd way to put it but I’ll use that as a reference point. My phone calculator is a bit limited so need to break this up a bit. Concrete is about 150 lbs per cubic foot; another approximation. So a cubic mile of concrete works out to about 22 trillion pounds. So 6600 trillion lbs (6.6 x 1000)/22 = 300 cubic miles of Stone. Actually I’d have thought it would be more. Anyone want to check my math?

[Flaleftist]

15. Pounds of what?

Different materials have different densities. Concrete may be more dense than whatever that scientist was referencing.

[rusty quoin]

7. Reminds me of the fool who brought a snowball onto the floor to prove his point about global warming

They can say anything and still get re-elected.

[WhiteTara]

8. Is this before or after

Guam turns over on its side because too many people are one side of the island?

[Solly Mack]

10. I'm waiting for him to tell us how whale farts cause tsunamis.

[Yupster]

12. It's a question I've always wanted to ask a scientist

I live in an area where we have wicked duststorms. The whole sky turns orange sometimes and you can't even see where the road is because of all the dirt covering it.

I always assume that at some point the dirt ends up in the sea.

So over millions of years I have thought why hasn't the entire landmass eroded into the sea. Does land get replenished? I know it does through volcanoes, but that seems like such a small amount compared to the amount getting eroded into the sea each year.

Maybe the people of Hawaii would disagree with me on that right now.

Anyway, it's a question I've always wanted to ask a scientist.

[lunatica]

17. I think the dust probably ends up landing on land more than water

Whenever you see plants that root in sidewalk cracks or on abandoned buildings you can see the effect of wind carrying dirt and seeds. After Mount St Helens devastated the plant life for miles around it, within a year there were a surprising number of new plants growing right out of the lava beds. New plant life comes back very quickly.

[Garrett78]

13. As an article from several years ago stated, that committee is an embarrassment.

Climate change deniers and creationists (including the Young Earth variety) in the general population is bad enough. That such folks constitute a majority of the US House Committee on Science, Space, & Technology leaves me speechless.

[hvn_nbr_2]

14. Do rocks in a Congressman's head make his IQ rise? nt

[lunatica]

16. When he drops his ass into the bathtub the water rises

It’s scientific.

[Snake Plissken]

18. If we could just get the fish to stop pissing in the ocean, it would solve climate change

but in the mean time we need to remove all the boats and ships from the water to lower sea level.