June 2, 2017

CNN's Jim Acosta confronted EPA's Scott Pruitt on his climate change wishy-washy denying during today's press briefing and finally called him out, "I think you're putting your head in the sand on this?"

Pruitt was sent out today to support Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris accords.

Pruitt, a noted climate denier was badgered with questions on if he believes in global warming and if Trump does as a well, but he constantly deflected those away.

He admitted global warming is occurring at some level and made the argument that there are too many "climate exaggerates" out there trying to control what happens.

"Human activity contributes to it in some manner," Pruitt said.

"Measuring with precision, from my perspective, the degree of human contribution is very challenging, but it still begs the question, what do we do about it?"

He continued, "People have called me a climate skeptic or a climate denier. I don't know what it means to deny the climate. I would say they're climate exaggerators."

Pruitt then used a Bret Stephens article in the NY Times, which Slate says, "It doesn’t outright reject the facts—which makes it all the more insidious," to defend his positions on climate change.

CNN's Jim Acosta then followed up, "Why, then, is the arctic ice shell melting? Why are the sea levels rising? Why are the hottest temperatures in the last decade essentially the hottest temperatures we've seen on record?"

"When NASA says that 95% of the experts in this area around the world believe that the air is warming, and you are up there throwing out information that says, 'well, maybe this is being exaggerated and so forth,' you talk about climate exaggerators, it just seems to a lot of people around the world that you and the president are just denying the reality, and the reality of the situation is that climate change is happening and it is a significant threat to the planet."

Pruitt brought up his confirmation hearing and then said the U.S. has done tremendous work curbing CO2, but the Trump administration will always put America's interests first.

Scott said, "We're just not going to agree to frameworks and agreements that put us at an economic dis advantage and hurt citizens across this country.

Acosta replied, "I think you're putting your head in the sand, Mr. Pruitt. Are you a little worried if you're putting your head in the sand on this?

Pruitt replied, "There is no evidence of that."

I forgot to add, watching and listening to Pruitt is all the evidence we need.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon