NC gov.: ‘Clean up environment’ for consensus on climate

The Republican governor of North Carolina says people should focus on cleaning up the air and water, something upon which everyone agrees, instead of fighting about long-term effects of climate change.

“The whole issue of cleaning the environment, I think, is the issue we ought to talk about more than getting into a debate from the left and right about climate change and global warming,” Gov. Pat McCrory (R) said on ABC’s “This Week.”

{mosads}“It’s all about cleaning the environment and having a good quality of life for, not only now, but for future generations.”

McCrory has previously said that climate change is “in God’s hands,” but on two separate shows on Sunday he maintained that global weather patterns have changed.

“You know, I feel there has always been climate change. The debate is really how much of it is manmade and how much will it cost to have any impact on climate change,” he said on “Face the Nation” on CBS.

“The question then is what do we do about it and how much will it cost the consumer?” he asked on the ABC show on Sunday.

Virtually all climate scientists agree that climate change is caused by human activity.

President Obama on Friday headed to California, which has seen record droughts, to announce a new “resiliency fund” to help communities deal with the storms, wildfires and other effects of climate change. The fund would need Congress’s approval to be created. 

North Carolina has been hit by winter storms and freezing temperatures in recent weeks, as a cold snap has frozen much of the eastern half of the country.

McCrory said that the weather has been “very tough on all of us.”

“Our budget is already at its maximum regarding snow removal and that doesn’t include our cities and small towns,” he said.

“It’s a hit on our budget and it’s going to be a hit on the economy because people haven’t been spending money for the last four or five days.“