Tillerson the weasel

When the cameras were rolling and the Senators were asking questions, the new Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, smiled and said all the right things about climate change that he was supposed to, to reassure the Senators that he wasn't a lying weasel on this subject.

The problem is, as the former CEO of Exxon/Mobil, he's a lying weasel and his company has funded climate change denialism for years, and still can't get over the habit.

Because in written answers to questions from Senators, Tillerson backed off his public climate change presentation and descended into denialism heaven.

This is what he wrote, in answer to Maryland's Honorable Ben Cardin:

“I agree with the consensus view that combustion of fossil fuels is a leading cause for increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” he wrote to Cardin. “I understand these gases to be a factor in rising temperature, but I do not believe the scientific consensus supports their characterization as the ‘key’ factor."

First of all, why are they called "greenhouse gases", Rex?   And if of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (which by their very identity are known to be responsible for maintaining the temperature of the planet's atmospheric layer) aren't the key factor in Earth's rising temperature, then what the f*ck (excuse me) is?

Well, let's put it this way.  Tillerson gets it utterly wrong in the above answer.  Not only is the consensus view that combustion of fossil fuels is the leading cause for the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (that's not much of a stretch, given that burning fossil fuels produces CO₂), but the consensus view is ALSO that this increase is the main cause of increasing global temperature.   The scientific consensus STRONGLY supports this.

So what can we make of Rex's statement, then?

That's easy.  It's a f*cking lie, by a f*cking asshole who wouldn't know science from a hole in the ground.  And that's what he's good at, drilling holes in the ground.  And lying to Congress.  Guess we can expect a lot more of that, can't we?