While tempting to name as jester Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, who Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday took to task for the Trump Administration’s lack of a plan to deal with climate change, Russian President Vladimir Putin “wins” this week’s honors. Putin contradicted previous comments to say humans do not contribute to climate change and suggested the problem could be use for Russia’s “economic ends.” He has also suggested a warming of two to three degrees could mean Russians won’t need to wear fur coats.
Putin said “warming had already started by the 1930s” thus concluding “there were no such anthropological factors, such emissions” at the time to exacerbate the problem. “The issue is not stopping it… because that’s impossible, since it could be tied to some global cycles on Earth or even of planetary significance. The issue is to somehow adapt to it,” he said.
These comments run contrary to his position in 2015 when he said “the quality of life of all people on the planet depends on solving the climate problem.”