Residents living in the northeast were shocked Friday when the region was struck by a sharp earthquake, but one congressional candidate faced swift mockery for blaming it on climate change.
The earthquake registered about 4.8 on the Richter scale and shook parts of New Jersey and New York City. Many rushed to social media to express their bewilderment and post videos of the quake.
While earthquakes in the region are rare, they are possible because of a major fault line named the Ramapo Fault that runs from the Appalachian mountains. Several fault lines run under New York City.
Christina Amira Khalil is a candidate for the U.S. Senate for the Green Party, and she showed her keen understanding of science when she said on social media that the earthquake was due to the climate changing.
“I experienced my first earthquake in NJ. We never get earthquakes,” said Khalil on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“The climate crisis is real. The weirdest experience ever,” she added.
The odd claim garnered over 600k views in just a few hours.
Ridicule
Many on social media pounced on the opportunity to mock a politician making such an absurd claim.
“Please explain the causal link that you think exists between the climate crisis and earthquakes,” read one response.
“Can you show us on the doll where the climate crisis touched you?” replied Addison Smith of Newsmax.
“This is the dumbest Tweet I think I have ever seen. Congratulations,” responded meteorologist Chris Martz. “Earthquakes have nothing to do with human-caused climate change. A gas that composes 0.04% of the Earth’s atmosphere doesn’t have any affect on the movement of fault lines. Go back to 3rd grade science.”
“If you were looking for the dumbest person on the planet – this would be a great place to start,” replied comedian Brian Haner.
She responds
When someone informed Khalil about other earthquakes in New Jersey just this year, she claimed ignorance.
“Never felt or knew about those. I felt this one. Same with many other NJ people,” she responded.
Later, she mocked those who ridiculed her so ruthlessly on social media.
“Pretty cool, I upset a lot of bots,” she posted.
An online prediction platform places Khalil’s chances of winning the Senate seat at 13%.
Here’s more about the earthquake:
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