This week’s climate jester is Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry who in an interview on Monday indicated that carbon dioxide emissions from human activity is not a primary driver of climate change.
Asked whether human activity was the primary knob for climate change, Perry said, “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? There’s this idea that science is absolutely settled and if you don’t believe it’s settled, you’re somehow or another a neanderthal… that is so inappropriate… I think if you’re going to be a wise, intellectually engaged issue, being a skeptic about some of these issues is quite alright.”
You can watch the entire clip below. The climate conversation begins six minutes, forty seconds in. We agree with so much that Perry has to say about clean energy, but wish he would come around on climate. While we understand the role that skepticism plays in science (that’s why scientists rely on peer review) the jury is not out on human activity and climate change.