Top news and views about Environment and Cleantech for 11 Mar 2017
Bernie Sanders calls Donald Trump’s new EPA chief ‘pathetic’ for climate change stance
Bernie Sanders has criticised the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), after he expressed doubts about carbon dioxide being a “primary contributor” to climate change.
The former Democratic presidential candidate called Scott Pruitt's position "pathetic".
“I wish I could come up with another word," Mr Sanders told CNN, adding that Mr Pruitt's denial came "in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence".
"Not only is it sad," he said. "It is a real threat to the wellbeing of this country and the world.”
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EPA head Scott Pruitt denies that carbon dioxide causes global warming
Scott Pruitt, Donald Trump’s head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, has dismissed a basic scientific understanding of climate change by denying that carbon dioxide emissions are a primary cause of global warming.
Pruitt said on Thursday that he did not believe that the release of CO2, a heat-trapping gas, was pushing global temperatures upwards.
“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,” he told CNBC.
“But we don’t know that yet ... We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis.”
Full story at http://bit.ly/2mbihu1
On climate change, Scott Pruitt causes an uproar — and contradicts the EPA’s own website
Scott Pruitt, the nation’s top environmental official, strongly rejected the established science of climate change on Thursday, outraging scientists, environmentalists, and even his immediate predecessor at the Environmental Protection Agency.
“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, the newly installed EPA administrator, said on the CNBC program “Squawk Box.”
“But we don’t know that yet,” he continued. “We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis.”
His comments represented a startling statement for an official so high in the U.S. government, putting him at odds not only with other countries around the globe but also with the official scientific findings of the agency he now leads. President Trump in the past has called the notion of human-fueled climate change a hoax. And other cabinet members, including Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, have previously questioned the scientific basis for combating global warming.
Full story at http://wapo.st/2mb8Cnk