Celebrity astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson isn’t too concerned with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency saying carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are not to blame for global warming. But if talk turns to action, then that’s a different story.
Late night talk show host Stephen Colbert broached the topic Tuesday night with the director of the Hayden Planetarium, and asked him what the present consensus on carbon dioxide and climate change after EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said he “would not agree” that carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to the global warming.
“It’s a greenhouse gas, along with methane. And actually water is a greenhouse vapor, but that’s considered fixed in the atmosphere,” Tyson said.
He went on to say this is all talk, and he would not act until “they actually try to put legislation in pace.”
“People just talk,” Tyson said. “I can’t chase what people say because it flutters with the breeze.”
If anyone were to put down legislation that “requires that everyone to think” the same as Pruitt, Tyson warned: “Oh. Oh, my God! Hold me back!”
Not only did Pruitt’s comments about climate change stand at odds with the thinking of most scientists, but also conflict with the findings of other parts of the government, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.
