Energy & Environment

Sanders rips Pruitt over climate change comments

by Nikita Vladimirov 03/09/17 07:19 PM CST

Sanders: It's "pathetic" that EPA chief thinks CO2 not primary contributor to climate change https://t.co/p8GlkyhlCu https://t.co/Cd6P1ht2zO

— CNN (@CNN) March 9, 2017

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday blasted the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for doubting that carbon dioxide is a “primary contributor” to climate change.

“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,” Sanders said in an interview with CNN.

“You have the head of the Environmental Protection Agency who denies … reality in face of overwhelming scientific evidence. Not only is it sad, it is a real threat to the well-being of this country and the world.”

{mosads}On Thursday, EPA head Scott Pruitt voiced his view that he “would not agree” that carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming.

“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 said.

Sanders, however, maintained that the debate over climate change is over and that carbon dioxide emissions cause “devastating problems” to the planet’s climate.

“The debate is over. Something like 97 percent of the scientists who have written peer-reviewed articles on the subject agree that it is human activity and CO2 emissions that are causing devastating problems already in the United States and around the world,” Sanders said.

“That you have the Trump administration continuing to deny the reality and the horrors that the climate change is already causing is very sad indeed.”