Herschel Walker Bashes New Climate Law: ‘Don’t We Have Enough Trees?’ [Video]

Herschel Walker, the Republican nominee for a Senate seat in Georgia, blasted a new law that’s aimed in part at fighting climate change, arguing it will waste money on trees.

via: Rolling Stone

Step aside, “How can global warming be real if it’s cold outside?” Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker has a fresh and no less baffling justification for climate inaction: We already have enough trees.

Discussing the Inflation Reduction Act recently signed into law by President Biden, which included the largest environmental investment in American history, Walker argued on Sunday that Democrats “continue to try to fool you that they are helping you out. But they’re not … A lot of money it’s going to trees. Don’t we have enough trees around here?”

Walker’s comments, which were reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, may have been in reference to a provision of the climate bill that allocates $1.5 billion to the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, The Washington Post notes. Walker also may have making some sort of oblique reference to the Trillion Trees Initiative, which is part of the law but an organization that seeks to combat the climate crisis by planting trees. It’s hard to say.

In July, Walker left meteorologists scratching their heads when he claimed that the Green New Deal would result in America’s “good air decid[ing] to float over to China’s bad air.” China’s “bad air” would then “move over to our good air space,” which would force America to “clean that back up,” according to Walker’s understanding of the issue.

The former Heisman Trophy winner’s questionable scientific takes aren’t limited to the climate crisis. In March, Walker questioned the science behind evolution: “At one time science said, man came from apes,” he said. “Did it not? … If that is true, why are there still apes? Think about it.”

Walker admitted in December to having lied about graduating from the University of Georgia. His Trump-endorsed campaign seeks to unseat incumbent Democratic senator Raphael Warnock in November, and polling indicates that while Warnock holds a lead over Walker, the election may result in a runoff between the two candidates.