Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Sunday said that Republicans “want to put their head in the sands” when it comes to climate change.
“In the same week that we saw Hurricane Michael flatten the Florida Panhandle, we had this report from the world’s leading climate scientists saying climate change is hurting us today and it’s only getting worse,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
{mosads}”And at the same you have the Trump administration and a lot of Republicans who just want to put their head in the sands. They don’t want to hear the information,” Van Hollen continued.
The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report last week that offered dire warnings about the globe’s warming climate, noting that climate change could have catastrophic consequences in the coming decades if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t cut drastically by 2030.
But the Trump administration has been slow to accept the report’s findings. President Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax,” appeared skeptical about the report’s conclusions last week when talking to reporters.
“It was given to me and I want to look at who drew it, which group drew it,” Trump said. “Because I can give you reports that are fabulous and I can give you reports that aren’t so good.”
Additionally, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Sunday pushed back against the U.N. report, saying the administration needs to consider plausible solutions.
Van Hollen added during his “Face the Nation” interview that lawmakers should address climate change by first “not making things worse.”
“This administration and Republicans in Congress are actually rolling back auto-emission standards, rolling back clean power plant rules. Let’s stop making things worse and then we definitely need to take action to make things better,” he said.