CNBC's Joe Kernen: Climate Change Is 'Like Witchcraft'

We know the media doesn't like to talk about climate change much, but this latest case of global warming denial has taken things to a new level.

CNBC's Joe Kernen said Thursday morning that climate change and higher temperatures in January were likely not a result of increased CO2, but rather of something more inexplicable.

"It's almost like witchcraft," Kernen said. "In the middle ages it was witchcraft. You would have attributed adverse weather events to witchcraft."

Despite data that shows climate scientists are 95 percent sure that humans have caused at least "half of the observed increase in global average surface temperatures since the 1950s," Kernen continued to deny such a cause-and-effect relationship. Kernen defended a recent claim that "the earth's geologic history fundamentally contradicts CO2 climate fears," using the argument that there were warmer temperatures and an ice age at a time when CO2 levels were significantly higher than today.

"The climate is so difficult to figure out," he said.

Kernen has criticized climate science publicly before, and also used the word "witch" on Twitter in September when referring to the work of climate scientists:

(h/t: Peter Daou)