Energy Secretary Rick Perry told CNBC on Monday he does not believe carbon dioxide emissions from human activity are the main driver of climate change, joining the EPA administrator in casting doubt on the conclusion of some of the government’s top scientists.
Asked whether CO2 emissions are primarily responsible for climate change, Perry told CNBC’s “Squawk Box”: “No, most likely the primary control knob is the ocean waters and this environment that we live in.”
“The fact is this shouldn’t be a debate about, ‘Is the climate changing, is man having an effect on it?’ Yeah, we are. The question should be just how much, and what are the policy changes that we need to make to effect that?” he said.
In March, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt told “Squawk Box” he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming.
Those statements contradict the public stance of the Environmental Protection Agency, at least until recently.
The EPA’s web page on the causes of climate change used to state, “Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas that is contributing to recent climate change.” The EPA recently took down the web page containing that statement.
Perry and Pruitt’s views are also at odds with the conclusion of NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Despite those conclusions, Perry said, “This idea that science is just absolutely settled and if you don’t believe it’s settled then somehow you’re another neanderthal, that is so inappropriate from my perspective.”
Being a skeptic about climate change issues is “quite all right,” he said, suggesting that skepticism is a sign of a “wise, intellectually engaged person.”
Read more at CNBC
It’s not CO2 – and I doubt it’s the oceans. It’s the sun.
How much is it changing?
Think on this:
Year after year people return to our county, state, and national parks.
Year after year people return to exotic global tourist destinations.
If catastrophic anthropogenic global warming were happening, these places would be disappearing.
But they are not.
People continue to drive through New England to see the fall colors.
People still go to ski resorts to schuss down the mountainsides.
They continue to hike the Grand Canyon and climb El Capitan and Everest.
Year after year there are record breaking crops.
The western US saw record breaking snowfall this last winter.
They’re still digging out park roads.
No one is moving out of Manhattan or away from shorelines; the price of beach-front property is still sky-high.
Those supposedly sinking islands they keep telling us about? They are still selling homes and even building new ones.
Tourists still go visit.
Where is the catastrophe?
Isn’t it refreshing to hear the truth . A politician with backbone and unafraid to
say what most people believe . It is absurd to conclude that a trace gas , favorable to life is the primary contributor to climate change . Only climate hustlers could try and sell that line of BS . Good on Mr. Perry for not being a timid mouse and setting the record straight . Lets hope the current warming cycle lasts till we find some new planet to take over .