A New Jersey Senate candidate was mercilessly harassed on social media after claiming the “climate crisis” was behind Friday’s earthquake that shook the tri-state area.
Green Party member Christina Amira Khalil shared the controversial post just minutes after the quake, which was the strongest tremor to hit near the Big Apple in 140 years.
“I experienced my first earthquake in New Jersey. We never have earthquakes. The climate crisis is real. Weirdest experience ever,” Khalil wrote on X.
The post was posted only hours before the congressional hopeful deleted it — but not before it garnered millions of views and an X-rated “community rating” verifying his claims.
Dozens of other high-profile politicians and commentators shared Khalil’s tweet, mocking the politician for linking the movement of the Earth’s crust to climate change in the atmosphere.
“Holy shit, I was joking about people blaming climate change, and then this genie appeared. A candidate for the Senate, no less! Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas wrote in response to the since-deleted tweet.
“Senate candidate Christina Amira Khalil just said the ‘climate crisis’ caused today’s earthquake in New Jersey. The climate does not cause earthquakes: they are caused by the movement of tectonic plates. This woman is an idiot,” said Conservative commentator Paul Szypula.
Kyle Mann, editor of the satirical newspaper The Babylon Beestacked, writing: “I’m going to call my Babylon Bee editors to figure out why we failed to come up with ‘the earthquake was caused by climate change’ before the liberals did.”
Khalil – who is running to take Democratic Senator Robert Menendez’s seat – has since replaced his controversial tweet with one simply detailing his shock over the rare New Jersey earthquake.
“In all my life in New Jersey, I have never experienced anything like this” she wrote.
Follow the Post’s coverage of the earthquake in New York and three states
According to NASA, there is no link between climate change and earthquakes, which are simply caused by the collision of tectonic plates beneath the Earth’s surface.
“We know that most earthquakes occur well below the Earth’s surface, well beyond the influence of surface temperatures and conditions,” said Alan Buis of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in 2019.
“We know that the statistical distribution of earthquakes is roughly equal across all types of weather conditions. Myth busted.
Khalil was not the only politician to become upset over baseless claims about the earthquake.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ge.) blamed the tremors on the decline of American morality – saying it was a warning sent from heaven.
“God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent. Earthquakes and eclipses and much more to come. I pray that our country listens,” Greene wrote.
The curator’s post was accompanied by a “community note”
New York Post
