President Trump's nominee for the top environmental position within the White House says the impact of human activity on climate change is uncertain. She appears to be another of Trump's appointees selected to sabotage the mission of the position for which she was chosen.
During a confirmation hearing last week, Kathleen Hartnett White, named by Trump to lead the Council on Environmental Quality, was unable to answer senators' questions regarding some of the most basic issues involving climate change and the impact of greenhouse gases on the atmosphere. In fact, she said, carbon dioxide is a "plant nutrient," not a pollutant.
Just check out this video from The Guardian and you'll be amazed.
Hartnett White is the director of the Armstrong Center for Energy and the Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the former chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. You would think she would have at least some scientific knowledge about the impact of greenhouse-gas emissions and their impact on the warming of the oceans -- and the implications of that.
But in testimony before Senate committee last week, it was clear she either had no clue or she's willing to simply ignore the opinion of the vast majority of climate scientists who agree that the burning and extraction of fossil fuels releases tons of gases into the atmosphere that prevent heat from escaping from the ocean. That has shifted the habitats of sea animals and endangered other sea life, which affects us all.
Hartnett White apparently is only too happy to ignore the latest major scientific study, which declared unequivocally, that actions by humans are to blame for our changing climate. The study was part of a congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment issued every four years and was developed by hundreds of experts within the government and academia. It was peer-reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences. Thus, it is considered the United States’ most definitive statement on climate change science.
During the hearing, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) asked Hartnett White if she was aware of the extent to which oceans trap heat. The person nominated to be the White House's top environmental guru had no idea. "I am not a scientist," she said, "but in my personal capacity I have many questions that remain unanswered by current climate policy. we need to have a more precise explanation of the human role and the natural role."
Everything related to climate change, in her mind is "uncertain," which is the mantra of the Trump administration, witness the views of her old boss in Texas, former Gov. Rick Perry, who is now Trump's Energy Secretary.
"Uncertainty" is their reason for ignoring the climate change perils that our planet simply must confront.