The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide has long been considered as a primary contributor to global warming but Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt does not think so.
Pruitt's View On Carbon Emissions And Global Warming
On Thursday, March 9 Pruitt issued a statement on CNBC's Squawk Box that appears to contradict the public stance of the agency that he leads.
While the EPA says that carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, Pruitt expressed his doubts about the impact of carbon emissions on 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," Pruitt said.
EPA is a crucial agency when it comes to issues and actions linked to climate change. In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that EPA has authority to regulate the heat-trapping gases produced by vehicles. Seven years after that, it determined that the agency may also regulate some sources of greenhouse gases such as power plants.
Not Fit To Lead ESA
In response to Pruitt's statement, Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who is co-chair of the Senate Climate Action Task Force, described the EPA chief's statement as extreme and irresponsible, saying that anyone who denies basic facts and a century's worth of established science is not fit to be the EPA's administrator.
Democrats and environmentalists were not in favor of Pruitt leading the EPA because of his close association with fossil fuel companies and history of casting doubt on man-made climate change.
Scientists' Stand On Man-Made Climate Change
A study published in PNAS has shown that majority of scientists who have published papers on climate science are convinced of man-made climate change.
"We use an extensive dataset of 1,372 climate researchers and their publication and citation data to show that (i) 97-98 percent of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field surveyed here support the tenets of anthropogenic climate change (ACC) outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change," researchers wrote in the study.
Other U.S. agencies, notably the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA, also support the idea of carbon dioxide being a primary contributor to global warming.
In January this year, the U.S. space agency and NOAA said that the average surface temperature of the planet has increased by about 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century, which they attribute largely to increased levels of carbon dioxide and other man-made emissions.
Impacts Of A Warming World
Scientists have been raising alarm on the rising temperatures and attribute potentially damaging phenomena such as massive coral bleaching, extinction of animals, and evolution of species to a warming planet.
In 2015, the United States was among more than 190 nations that approved the landmark climate agreement that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere is a particular concern for many nations. Minimizing the release of the greenhouse gas is considered key to the enforcement of the Paris treaty.
