EPA chief says he’s ready to “bring scientists in” to debate existence of manmade climate change

In an apparent reversal of his previously held opinions, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt acknowledged mankind’s role in exacerbating climate change during a Tuesday morning appearance on Fox & Friends.

“We know the climate’s always changing. We know that humans contribute to it in some way,” Pruitt said during the segment. “To what degree, to measure that with precision is very difficult.”

Pruitt, whom President Donald Trump appointed to lead the EPA in December, has been steadfast in his denial of a human link to rapidly changing climate patterns. As recently as August, in the wake of hurricanes Harvey and Irma, Pruitt criticized the media for being “opportunistic” in its attempt to draw connections between deadly flooding and warming ocean temperatures in the Caribbean.

“I think at this point to look at things like this and talk about a cause and effect isn’t really helping the people of Texas right now,” Pruitt told Breitbart. “So, I think for opportunistic media to use events like this ... to simply engage in a cause-and-effect type of discussion and not focus upon the needs of people, I think is misplaced.

But on Tuesday, Pruitt announced he was ready to have a debate about the realities of climate change and seemed to acknowledge its existence as indisputable fact.

“Let’s bring scientists in — red-team scientists, blue-team scientists — have a discussion about the importance of this issue, because the American people deserve that type of objective, transparent discussion,” Pruitt said.

Since scientific consensus on mankind’s role in climate change is near universal, the time for bipartisan debate on the issue may be long over. But with a new class of superstorms presently wreaking havoc on the mainland United States and the island nations that dot the oceans surrounding it, it’s more urgent than ever for the individuals leading the agencies responsible for dealing with the aftermath of those crises to be on the same page.