Australian Senator Says Penises Cause Climate Change — Here's Why

An Australian senator quoted a paper that alleged penises were causing climate change in an attempt to prove not all peer-review papers could be trusted. Malcolm Roberts cited a fake gender study titled “The Conceptual Penis As A Social Construct” during a session in front of Australia’s science body, CSIRO.

The paper claimed that penises caused climate change.

Read: Pennsylvania Senator Says Body Heat Causes Climate Change

“We conclude that penises are not best understood as the male sexual organ, or as a male reproductive organ, but instead as an enacted social construct that is both damaging and problematic for society and future generations,” the paper stated. “The conceptual penis presents significant problems for gender identity and reproductive identity within social and family dynamics, is exclusionary to disenfranchised communities based upon gender or reproductive identity, is an enduring source of abuse for women and other gender-marginalized groups and individuals, is the universal performative source of rape and is the conceptual driver behind much of climate change.”

“The point I am getting at is that this was published in the journal Cogent Social Sciences, but it has credibility because it has been peer-reviewed,” Roberts said. “So I am very concerned about some of the peer reviewed papers.”

From there the discussions devolved further.

“You have quoted two papers,” said Science Minister Arthur Sinodinos. “You have then jumped to a general proposition that this means every peer-reviewed paper in the world, or potentially, is subject to some sort of potential for fraud.”

“I did not,” Roberts replied.

“This idea that we can jump from two very specific papers to a general proposition about peer-reviewed scientific findings, we really are in a very Kafka-esque world,” said Sinodinos.

“I am saying there are possibly holes in the peer-reviewed process,” said Roberts.

In another attempt to make a point, Roberts asked Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel whether it was important for scientists to have an open mind.

Finkel said it was, but “not so much that your brain leaks out.”

At one point, Sinodinos, overwhelmed with the situation, said “I need a biscuit.”

The discussion was not the first time absurd ideas have been broached in the area of climate change. A Pennsylvania senator once blamed climate change on body heat and the Earth’s proximity to the sun.

Read: Alleged Whistleblower Says NOAA Exaggerated Climate Change Data

“We have more people… you know, humans have warm bodies,” Sen. Scott Wagner told a group of natural gas and oil drilling advocates in March. “So is heat coming off? Things are changing… but I think we are, as a society, doing the best we can.”

He added that the Earth’s warming might have something to do with the Earth’s impending collision with the sun.

“I haven’t been in a science class in a long time,” he said. “But the Earth moves closer to the sun every year – you know, the rotation of the Earth. We’re moving closer to the sun.”