Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue appears to see little difference between day-to-day weather and global climate change.
In an interview released Tuesday on CNN, Perdue was asked if he thinks human activity has caused climate change. He said “we don’t know,” adding that “obviously scientists — many scientists believe that it’s human caused, other scientists believe it’s not.”
In fact, an overwhelming number of scientists agree that humans are behind the dramatic recent rise in global warming, which drives the growing climate crisis.
Asked what he does think is behind climate change, Perdue answered with a verbal shrug.
“You know,” he said, “I think it’s weather patterns, frankly. And you know, and they change, as I said. It rained yesterday, it’s a nice pretty day today. So the climate does change in short increments and in long increments.”
CNN noted that in an interview on the network Sunday, Vice President Pence “repeatedly refused to say if he views the global climate crisis as a threat to the United States.”
“Climate change — which occurs over decades and influences extreme weather patterns — has tremendous effects on the agriculture industry, which Perdue oversees in his current role,” says Axios. “A Department of Agriculture that does not acknowledge the facts on human-caused global warming would be less equipped to help farmers adapt to their increasingly challenging circumstances.”
Axios added that in just the past year, “record rainfall throughout the Central U.S. has saturated farmers’ fields to the point of no return, leaving large portions of land useless and resulting in stunted harvests. Such extreme weather events are symptomatic of climate change, studies show.”
