There was a time, not that long ago, but well after medical science and common sense were both clear on the matter, when lawmakers and paid experts would stand up in public and state under oath, with utter conviction and no visible sign of shame, that there was no evidence whatsoever linking cigarettes to lung disease. They were laughed at and scorned in later years, but because of the money spread generously by big tobacco, they persisted long past their due date. Today, the same kinds of shills and the same pseudo-science comes from the mouths of fossil fuel apologists, one of whom was just appointed by Trump to head the EPA:
“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,” [Scott] Pruitt, the newly installed EPA administrator, said on the CNBC program “Squawk Box. But we don’t know that yet,” he continued. “We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis.”
His comments represented a startling statement for an official so high in the U.S. government, putting him at odds not only with other countries around the globe but also with the official scientific findings of the agency he now leads.
Note his phrasing: He’s saying that disagreement about the amount of human-caused warming means CO2 is not the primary driver of warming. That’s like saying, “I don’t know if there’s a traffic jam at the corner of Main and 1st street or Main and 2nd, therefore cars don’t exist.”
- Hatred of science and knowledge in general is a common feature in authoritarian and nationalist governments. ISIS destroyed priceless ancient artifacts and torched irreplaceable books and scrolls during their terror-filled reign in Mosul.
- Veggies in space!
Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) survives by fertilizing Martian soil with his feces, slicing up potatoes, and planting the cuttings in the soil. This eventually grows him enough food to last hundreds of days. But farming on Mars may not remain sci-fi fantasy for very long: The NASA-backed "Potatoes on Mars" project just grew tubers in Mars-like conditions, suggesting that Watney's feat might actually be possible.