White House Chief of Staff John Kelly killed a plan by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to challenge climate science by organizing a set of “red team, blue team” debates pitting climate scientists against climate hoaxsters. The retired four-star Marine Corps general is said to share the same position on climate change as Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis: climate change is happening and poses a national security threat.
Climate scientists, whose work already undergoes rigorous peer review, saw the effort as a means to politicize the issue. “A thermometer isn’t Democrat or Republican,” said our favorite climate scientist, Dr. Katharine Hayhoe. “It doesn’t give you a different answer depending on how you vote. The only time it gives you a different answer is if you pretend it does.”
In January, Pruitt said rumors the red team, blue team process was “dead” were “untrue.”