It’s nice you can find a fresh interpretation, but really, the “Stop Continental Drift” thing was around for almost a decade before the first testimony about global warming was presented to Congress, never mind when the public started to be aware. As proof, take a look at this guy’s web page, especially the fourth paragraph.
It was never more than a lame nerdy joke, really.
What’s right-wing about it? If you look at the rest of the site there are both pro and anti Bush stickers for sale.
Huh. That’s interesting. But, still, it now works perfectly as political satire regarding global warming.
And thanks jjimm.
EDIT
Quartz, that’s not where I saw the bumper sticker first. I just linked there to show an example of one that was similar but not as good as the one I saw. And opposing action against global warming is right-wing, AFAIK.
The concept of a continent called Gondwanaland predates that of Pangaea by many decades. Evidence for Gondwanaland was one of the early clues for the existence of Continental Drift in the first place. It wasn’t until later that the existence of an earlier continent called Pangaea was postulated. Gondwanaland was certainly a far better-known term in the 1960s.
And in the post-WWII era there were certainly political issues surrounding the re-unification of Germany, Korea, Vietnam, and China. So re-unification as an issue made sense in that time also.
You have to remember that at that time these were slogans seen mainly on college campuses. They were college-student in-jokes. They weren’t something circulating among the general public very much.
I recall it as “186,000 miles a second - not just a good idea, it’s the LAW!”
This was a take off on the slogan that promoted the national 55-mph highway speed limit. But it was the same kind of science-nerd in-joke as the Gondwanaland one.
Yeah… On a similar note, I think the Daily Show had a bit a few years back where they were campaigning to “End Women’s Suffrage Now!”, and got a lot of people (women, natch) to sign their petition, obviously thinking that “suffrage” somehow meant a state of suffering.
As for using “Continental Drift” humorously, I seem to recall some kind of automotive print ad for an upscale foreign sports sedan using the phrase to snidely refer to the “handles like a boat” feeling of driving a large Lincoln.
Tell me. It was white and now it has yellow stains under the armpits?
Uh…like what? Europe is going to get a few yards farther away during the next umpty-thousand years? Will this impact frequent-flyer miles or something?
Equating continental drift with the potential problems of global warming seems like spin to make global warming sound harmless.
Sailboat
FWIW, Stop Continental Drift stickers and signs were everywhere when I was growing up in Berkeley in the 70s and early 80s. The phrase is absolutely more “nerds being clever” than “Al Gore haters being clever.”
The part about plate tectonics, volcanoes, etc. was the part of my 13th and 15th grade science books we didn’t get to study.
I seem to explain to people at least twice a year that the reason the Rockies, Pirineos and Alps all look similar is because they were made at about the same time, from similar materials and in a similar way. And the reason America has a “spine” of mountains is that the plate(s) forming that continent push against the one forming the bottom of the Pacific Ocean (Middlebro’s old Atlas, with a map of the plates, gets touted out and brought to factories, neighbors’ meetings and suchlike quite often). Also that having earthquakes in mediterranean countries is perfectly normal (people forget last year’s 5.3 in the same way that they forget last winter’s cold) and that Etna is an active volcano. Yes, that means lava. Yes, in Italy. Yes, it might explode although it’s not likely but if it explodes we’re sure to notice…
It was the Man Show. A rare shining moment on that show.
I find neither the “continental drift” nor the “Gondwanaland” slogan deserving of much more than a microsmirk, so it’s curious to see an impassioned debate over which slogan is the more humorous.
Then again, I’m partial to fart and poop jokes.
MMMMMM! Broiled Brontosaurus!
Dear Lord, I so generally despised that show that I forgot I was watching it when I saw that good bit and mentally transposed it to where I thought it belonged 
This thread is so SDMB.
STOP FARTING
Uh, if it’s fathomable that a couple of degrees of increase in the Earth’s temperature can cause worldwide disaster, why can’t you imagine how shifting continents can be a big deal? Besides obviously dire scenarios like land-masses crashing into each other and California falling into the ocean, isn’t that was causes earthquakes and volcanoes?
Has anybody given any thought to a something that could cause a real problem in the future? I have started doing my part and have begun conserving gravity.
“Continental Drift” is the name of what is currently considered by most if not all geologists to be a waaay outdated and incorrect theory proposed by Alfred Wegener almost 100 years ago. The currently accepted theory is referred to as “Plate Tectonics.” They are actually entirely different theories. “Continental Drift” gave no specific mechanism for the movement of the plates, and was not able to connect the phenomena of volcanoes and earthquakes to this idea of moving plates. Among other flaws that it had. I could find some more info and link to it, but I’m too lazy right now. So, “Stop Continental Drift” is actually not a big deal, because it’s pretty much been invalidated. But “Stop Plate Tectonics,” yeah, that would be a problem.
What?
Oh. Sorry… Not that kind of thread…
Fart jokes are funnier.
A topic for another thread—in Great Debates, perhaps.