Scott Pruitt, head of EPA, isn't so sure carbon dioxide drives climate change

Scott Pruitt, the noted climate change doubter who runs the Environmental Protection Agency, apparently doesn't buy the whole an-abundance-of-carbon-dioxide-is-warming-our-atmosphere-at-alarming-rates theory posited by science. 

On Thursday's installment of Squawk Box on CNBC, Pruitt said he wasn't convinced carbon dioxide emissions are a "primary contributor" to climate change. 

"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," Pruitt said. 

"But we don't know that yet," he continued, adding: "We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis."

The fact of the matter is we do know. NASA, one of the fact-focused scientific institutions driving the aforementioned research and analysis, calls the release of carbon dioxide through human activities like deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels — on top of natural carbon dioxide emissions — "the most important long-lived 'forcing' of climate change." Admittedly, that's not the clearest phrasing in the world, but it basically highlights the crucial role carbon dioxide plays in climate change. For what it's worth, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration agrees. 

The skepticism regarding carbon dioxide is not necessarily surprising, considering the source, but it is worrisome — especially considering the EPA's reported plan to cut climate protection programs by 70%. Someone better go get Bill Nye, perhaps he can explain the reality of climate change in terms Pruitt will understand.