Legislators v. Geologists

I had seen in the SFChronicle a while back that our California legislature, while not being able to pass a budget and preparing for yet another year of handing out IOUs to state workers, is on the verge of removing serpentine as the state rock. After all, if you grind it up and breathe it in, you are being exposed to asbestos. (Lobbing a hunk at a state legislator might also be fatal, come to think of it!) This would all be stupid enough, but via the NYTimes, I see they have picked a battle with geologists they weren't counting on.

Empirically speaking, geologists are not a particularly irascible group. But those who make their living studying rocks, minerals and gems in California — and increasingly those scientists beyond the state’s borders — are enraged over a bill in Sacramento that would knock serpentine, the official state rock, off its mantle.

Under the hashtag — a Twitter identifying phrase that allows easy searching of similarly themed messages — #CASerpentine, scientists and other opponents of the bill are debating the bill’s merits and offering fighting words. One read, “Dear gloria romero, you have picked the wrong nerds to mess with!”

Go geologists!