Scott Pruitt, the newly elected head of the US Environmental Protection Agency and quickly-becoming-world-renowned nutbag, has responded to a question on CNBC by claiming that carbon dioxide was not “a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.”
On the bright side, at least Scott Pruitt acknowledges that there is observable global warming.
So there’s that.
Let’s not be overly surprised by this. When Scott Pruit was first announced as Donald Trump’s nominee to head up the country’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) back in December of last year, his record came with a few coal-smudges on it. Not only was he responsible as Oklahoma attorney general for 14 separate attempts to sue the EPA (which he is now in charge of) but in a piece he wrote for the National Review he said:
“Scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind. That debate should be encouraged — in classrooms, public forums, and the halls of Congress. It should not be silenced with threats of prosecution. Dissent is not a crime.”
Speaking to CNBC on Thursday, Scott Pruitt really committed to his belief that there is wholesale scientific disagreement over the causes of global warming and the role of carbon dioxide. When asked whether he believed that carbon dioxide was “the primary control knob for climate,” Pruitt responded with this beauty:
“I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do, and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see,” Pruitt said. “We don’t know that yet. We need to continue the debate and to continue the review and analysis.”
As for a response, I’ll let the experts at The Weather Channel answer for us all:
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