BULLSH**TER OF THE DAY: Anthony Scaramucci, for reminding us that Fox News pundits are not scientists

Because climate change is invisible if you are not a credentialed climatologist

Published December 14, 2016 10:08PM (EST)

Anthony Scaramucci   (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton/Salon)
Anthony Scaramucci (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton/Salon)

Bullshitter of the Day is a regular series highlighting the most outrageous quotes from the world's most virtuosic shovelers

 

"There are scientists that believe that that's not happening. There was overwhelming science that the earth was flat and there was an overwhelming science that we were the center of the world. . . . We get a lot of things wrong in the scientific community. . . . I honestly don't know. I'm not a scientist."

–Anthony Scaramucci, CNN, Dec. 14, 2016

Who said it?

Fox News Contributor and Trump transition team member, Anthony Scaramucci.

What was the context?

Trump is filling up his future administration with climate change deniers, which could prove disastrous for the planet. But the scariest moment yet for scientists in this country came last Friday, when they received a questionnaire from the transition team asking for names of people working on Climate Change reduction. That is not only illegal, but also sends a clear message: the Trump administration is making science a personal issue and could potentially start a McCarthian purge. And here's Scaramucci to tell us we have all the reason to be terrified.

Is there any merit to this claim?

No, there isn't. Human impact on climate is real and there is consensus in the scientific community. Period. Now, if you want your little historical parable to work, the heroes in that story are people like Galileo Galilei and Giordano Bruno, not the Christian institution of the church and the biblical texts. So unless you want the Trump administration to be remembered in history as those who burned scientists in pyres on public forums, your administration should probably commit to reduce CO2 emissions.

Also, can we stop this "I'm not a scientist" nonsense once and for all? Climate change is no longer a scientific debate. The debate is how much longer cities like New Orleans have and what we can do to ameliorate the change. Just like you don't need to be a scientist to admit that you are pulled toward the earth by a force called "gravity," you don't need to be a scientist to accept that humans have an impact on climate.

Is this the first time he has come out with a load of bullshit?

Would he be in the Trump presidential transition team if this were his first load? In his best trump-adulation efforts, he once excused him on Fox News for not releasing his tax returns because he is "a billionaire." EXCUSE ME? Wouldn't that be all the more reason to make sure he didn't do anything fishy (he did) that should concern the American people (it didn't)?


By Mireia Triguero Roura



Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Anthony Scaramucci Bullshitter Of The Day