ROTT: Pruitt's comments to the contrary, though, aren't out of the ordinary for him. JENNIFER FRANCIS: It would be hard to find a scientist that disagreed with that. The EPA's own website says, quote, 'it is extremely likely that human activities have been the dominant cause of that warming.' Jennifer Francis is a research professor at Rutgers University. A report by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just earlier this year said that changes in the planet's surface temperature are largely driven by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions. ROTT: The scientific community overwhelmingly agrees with Titley's point.

It's just going to keep getting warmer, and the climate's going to change as long as we keep increasing the amount of greenhouse gases. TITLEY: The atmosphere doesn't care what any single person believes. ROTT: This is David Titley, the director of the Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate at Pennsylvania State University and a former rear admiral in the U.S.

And honestly it doesn't really matter what he believes in. That - so, no, I would not agree that it's a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.ĭAVID TITLEY: I don't know what Mr. And there's tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact. I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do. Pruitt on CNBC's 'Squawk Box' was whether or not he believed it's been proven that carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is the, quote, 'primary control knob for climate.' Here's the EPA administrator's response. NATHAN ROTT, BYLINE: The question asked of Mr. As NPR's Nathan Rott reports, his own agency has said otherwise. In a TV interview today, Pruitt said he does not believe that carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to climate change. The new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, has already put himself at odds with the vast majority of climate scientists.

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