In 2012's "Science Left Behind", I noted a claim by a politician opposed to natural gas - after environmentalists had previously lobbied for it (see also: ethanol, hydroelectric) - who stated that extracting it was causing earth to deflate.
It wasn't the craziest thing in the book, that more soldiers on Guam would cause the island to flip over or that organic food used no pesticides would also have to be in the running, but people who believe it are going to believe it, just like media outlets touting a claim that we are pumping so much groundwater that we are moving the planet off its axis.
But...but...it's detectable. Sure, anything is, endocrine disrupting chemical zealots and other homeopaths also invoke 'it's detecable' as being meaningful but we can detect the effect of a fly's beating wings on the gravity of the moon. Is a fly on earth causing the moon to tilt? It sure is. That doesn't mean you should worry about it.
Oh no, what does it mean? Well, nothing, it is just a computer simulation made using guesses. A simulation made by people who couldn't get hired at any gaming company because they lack the skill to make simulations.
In this case, journalists rushing to promote hysteria don't even realize it is actually not anything detected. It is not science at all, it is just another computer model using second order information.
If a little bit of water is in a slightly different place than it was 30 years ago doesn't make it worse, it just makes it different. Water has shifted all throughout geological history and we didn't spin off into space. This instead seems like more 'anthropocene epoch' doomsday talk, where we need mandatory abortion and sterilization or we're going extinct, like John Holdren and Paul Ehrlich claimed in 1977's "Ecoscience."
If You Think Fracking Is Causing Earth To Deflate, You May Believe Pumping Water Is Making Us Tilt
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