Bernie Sanders stormed CNN on Thursday to blast Donald Trump’s EPA leader, Scott Pruitt, for making the ridiculous claim that carbon dioxide is not a primary contributor to climate change.
The Vermont senator and former presidential candidate slammed Pruitt’s comment as “pathetic” and “sad.”
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Sanders: It’s “pathetic” that EPA chief thinks CO2 not primary contributor to climate change https://t.co/p8GlkyhlCu https://t.co/Cd6P1ht2zO
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— CNN (@CNN) March 9, 2017
Sanders said:
Honestly, I wish I could come up with another word. It is pathetic that that is the position of the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The debate is over. Something like 90 percent of the scientists who have written peer reviewed on this subject agree that is it human activity and CO2 emissions that are causing devastating problems already in the United States and around the world. That you have a head of the Environmental rProtection Agency who denies that reality in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence – not only is it sad, it is a real threat to the wellbeing of this country and the world.
Sanders’ outrage came after the new EPA leader questioned whether CO2 was a contributing to climate change, saying there was still “tremendous disagreement” about it.
“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,” Pruitt said in an interview on Thursday. “So no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.”
That’s right – the guy appointed by Trump to “protect” the environment can’t even admit what’s causing climate change. In his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Pruitt offered similar feelings, saying that the human contributions to climate change are still up for debate.
In an administration that has spent its short time in power rolling back environmental regulations and making sure coal companies can dump their sludge into our water systems, this is no surprise. But it doesn’t make it any less troubling.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
