EPA issued memo downplaying human role in climate change

The Environmental Protection Agency downplayed the role that human activity has played in accelerating climate change in talking points distributed via an internal memo, reports The Huffington Post. One of the memo's talking points says that "human activity" impacts climate change in "some manner," adding, "The ability to measure with precision the degree and extent of that impact, and what to do about it, are subject to continuing debate and dialogue."

Why it matters: Axios' Amy Harder says the very existence of these talking points puts on paper the phrasing that EPA chief Scott Pruitt has been using for months. For that reason, it's one of the most concrete public signs that the EPA's effort to dismiss climate change is coordinated and not haphazard.