Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talks show host, proves that science can be twisted to support any viewpoint. He found LiveScience’s Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth and, after reading much of the presentation (hurl our planet into a black hole, blow it up with antimatter, and other pretty difficult schemes), rightly concludes that it’s virtually impossible for us to annihilate this world. He goes on to say that this is reason enough to go ahead driving your SUV and running your air conditioner, because you can’t destroy the planet by your actions.

That’s funny. And one assumes Limbaugh knows it is just humor. The Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth, by the creative ponderer Sam Hughes, lays out incredibly difficult but theoretically plausible ways to render Earth entirely gone, as in no longer here. Dust, vapor, food for a blackhole.

People who worry about global warming and the effect humans have on climate are, however, not arguing that we will obliterate the planet, but rather simply that we are contributing to a dangerous trend that will cause seas to rise and swamp coastal communities, might render many species of animals extinct, and that could generate a host of other ill effects for society and life as we know it.

Limbaugh can make you laugh, but encouraging gas guzzling just because it won’t literally destroy the planet is a sad recommendation even from someone who doesn’t worry about global warming. Should we not also be concerned about American dependence on foreign oil, the limited supply of oil, and our eroding ability to compete effectively in the global marketplace as the cost of oil skyrockets while we fail to robustly encourage investment in new technologies and sustainable energy sources? Those seem like reasonable concerns for a conservative, but perhaps I’ve just twisted the science to fit my views.