IT'S been a good week for people with a tenuous grip on reality.
For years we've feared the effects of climate change, a global phenomenon which has led to sea levels rising so rapidly that a former Nasa scientist claimed the future of civilisation is at risk.
But crank up that thermostat, rev your engine at traffic lights and leave every electronic device plugged in, because as it turns out we need not have worried.
Enter professional Kerryman and international climate change expert, Independent TD Danny Healy-Rae, who has insisted that climate change is a myth.
Citing "facts" including "the Ice Age" and "Noah's Ark", he said climate patterns have altered over the centuries and essentially there's nothing we can do about it.
"There were some centuries when the country was very hot and warm and then there were different centuries with so much rain and cold.
So, those are facts," he told Hot Press. Although he did later go on to explain why drink-driving in "second or third gear" should be allowed in rural areas, so perhaps his grasp on facts isn't particularly strong.
The worrying thing is that Healy-Rae isn't alone. In Australia, Malcolm Roberts from the anti-immigration One Nation party, has alleged climate change is one big global conspiracy.
It's all the United Nations' fault, he claimed, saying it wants to pave the way for an unelected global government.
To be fair to Roberts, when presented with some actual facts which completely destroyed his argument, he still stuck to his guns.
During a panel show last week, British physicist Professor Brian Cox produced a graph showing how the earth is heating up.
"The absolute, absolute consensus is that human action is leading to an increase in average temperature," he told Roberts.
"I know you may try to argue with that, but you can't." But like a drunken uncle at a wedding, Roberts decided he could "argue with that".
The climate data, he said, had been "corrupted" by faceless people in "Nasa". Disappointingly he didn't go on to `do a David Icke' and claim that shape-shifting reptilian aliens were to blame for all the world's ills, but let's give it time.
Years ago no politician would seriously have suggested that global warning did not exist, apart from the ever-reliable Sammy Wilson who claimed several years ago it was just a big con.
Always ahead of the curve on taking an unfashionable stand, it can only be a matter of time before we all come round to Sammy's no-nonsense way of thinking.
Thankfully Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump has already adopted the same view on climate change.
Taking a slightly less `global conspiracy' stance than Roberts, Trump blames the global warning "hoax" firmly on China, claiming it was "created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing noncompetitive".
Should he be elected, Trump would be the only world leader, including North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, to dismiss global warning.
Although given the number of times Trump changes his mind on key issues - as early as 2009 he was one of the signatories of a letter urging measures to "control climate change" - he may have taken a different stance by next week.
Perhaps these politicians are simply behaving like every other animal on the planet. As global warming causes sea levels to rise, marine life is attempting to adapt to rapidly-changing habitats.
Great white sharks are breeding further north and walruses are being forced to crowd ashore. As global politics becomes ever-more about personalities, big political beasts can only survive by trying to make ever-more outlandish statements.
Like angry callers trying to get on late night radio phone-ins, or people attempting to be featured on The Jeremy Kyle Show, the more ridiculous and indefensible the viewpoint the better.
In a crowded Irish political scene, where Fianna Fail and Fine Gael's policies are virtually indistinguishable, the only TDs who really stand out are independents.
Sadly for every Shane Ross and Thomas Pringle there's a Danny Healy-Rae.
Voters deserve better than the Trumps, Healy-Raes and Roberts of this world, who refuse to accept scientific evidence in favour of bizarre conspiracy theories.
But these are the politicians whose daft assertions grab them all the attention. On one level you have to admire the sheer bloody-mindedness of sticking to a view despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
But maybe don't keep every light on in your house just yet.
