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Does Donald Trump Believe In Climate Change

So What Does Trump Actually Believe

Does the Trump administration believe in climate change?

that Mr Trump tends to conflate climate change with environmentalism more generally.

“He doesn’t really understand what climate change is about,” says Professor Michael Gerrard, an environmental law professor at the University of Columbia.

Meanwhile, Joseph Goffman, executive director of Harvard’s Environmental Law Programme, argues that Mr Trump “believes nothing on climate change – he’s a climate nihilist”.

Mr Trump’s position is based on his need to appeal to “the part of the Republican establishment that rejects climate policy,” Mr Goffman, who previously worked as Democratic staff director on the Senate environmental committee, adds.

Joseph Pinion, a Republican strategist who has called for more action on climate change, also argues that Mr Trump looks at the issue from a political, rather than a moral perspective.

“He’s not going to win running on the environment,” Mr Pinion says. “In America, climate is not an issue, so the reason it is not an issue for President Trump is because he cares about winning. And the reason Democrats are OK with it not being a priority for them, is because they want to beat him.”

“Ultimately it doesn’t matter what President Trump believes, what matters is what he’s doing – we need to recognise climate change is not a priority of his administration.”

Us Elections : A History Of Trumps Climate Change Denial

The US is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, but the president has repeatedly undermined sustained efforts by climate change researchers

By Akshit Sangomla

United States President Donald Trumps position on climate change has been constantly under the spotlight. The US is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, but the president has repeatedly undermined sustained efforts by climate change researchers on the subject.

In November 2018, for instance, when a group of government scientists and officials from 13 federal agencies brought out a volume of the National Climate Assessment, Trump denied its findings outright. The report had stated:

Based on extensive evidence, it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence.

I dont believe it. No, no, I dont believe it, Trump had told a US media reporter back then.

But all this has proved to be unconvincing to the US president, though he recently conceded at one of the presidential debates that humans have had some role to play in changing the climate of Earth. But this was too little too late. The damage has already been done in the last four years.

The Global Dangers Of Trumps Climate Denial

The U.S. President-elect inherits a crisis in the form of climate change. Heres how he might respond.

Donald Trumps surprising victory in the U.S. presidential election will ignite a dramatic change to U.S. environmental policy. Trump has signaled that his administration will reject President Barack Obamas policies aimed at combating climate change, a move that likely would throw international efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions into chaos.

The stakes for the United States, and the world, are enormous: If humankind does not reduce its greenhouse gas emissions immediately, climate scientists say, Earth could face as much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit of warming by 2100 relative to preindustrial temperatures, leading to increases in droughts and wildfires, rising seas, and major disruptions to global agriculture.

But Trump has long questioned whether climate change is real, and he has dismissed claims that it poses a major threat. In public statements and in his campaign platform, the New York real estate developer and reality TV star has extolled a resurgent U.S. fossil fuel industry, at the expense of existing policies combating climate change. He has also said that he will cut U.S. payments to United Nations climate change programs.

The President-elects stance on climate change runs counter to physical evidence, near-universal scientific consensus, and analyses by military experts and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Climate Change 101 with Bill Nye

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What Does Trump Actually Believe On Climate Change

US President Donald Trump’s position on climate change has been in the spotlight again, after he criticised “prophets of doom” at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

At the event, which had sustainability as its main theme, and activist Greta Thunberg as its star guest, Mr Trump dismissed “alarmists” who wanted to “control every aspect of our lives” – while also expressing the US’s support for an initiative to plant one trillion trees.

If you judge the president based on his words alone, his views on climate change appear contradictory – and confusing.

He has called climate change “mythical”, “nonexistent”, or “an expensive hoax” – but also subsequently described it as a “serious subject” that is “very important to me”.

Still – if you sift through his multitude of tweets and statements, a number of themes emerge.

In 2009, Mr Trump actually signed a full-page advert in the New York Times, along with dozens of other business leaders, expressing support for legislation combating climate change.

“If we fail to act now, it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet,” the statement said.

But in the years that followed, he took an opposite approach on Twitter, with more than 120 posts questioning or making light of climate change.

Its Possible That Trump Doesnt Actually Know What Climate Change Is

Trump says he believes greenhouse gases contribute to ...

See if you can spot the problem in comments President Trump made about climate change during a conversation with reporters on Tuesday, after The Washington Posts Philip Rucker asked whether he was thinking about climate change.

I think about it all the time, Phil. And, honestly, climate change is very important to me, Trump replied. And, you know, Ive done many environmental impact statements over my life, and I believe very strongly in very, very crystal clear, clean water and clean air. Thats a big part of climate change.

Perhaps we should have suggested you spot the myriad problems with the response. Starting, obviously, with his suggestion that environmental impact assessments for construction projects have any bearing on the subject at hand.

Environmentalists often describe greenhouse gas emissions as air pollution. The Supreme Court, in the 2007 case Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, ruled that carbon dioxide emissions could be regulated under the pollution prevention regulations of the Clean Air Act. But, again, ascribing this use of clean air to Trumps linking air quality to climate change is really, really generous.

Fourteen days of carbon emissions from China alone would wipe out the gains from America and this is an incredible statistic would totally wipe out the gains from Americas expected reductions in the year 2030, Trump said, reading from a Teleprompter.

Here he was in January 2016, again disparaging Obama.

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Assets & Personal Finances

While Trump did not release his tax returns for public scrutiny, citing an ongoing audit, he said that his financial disclosures more than made up for the fact: ,

I released the most extensive financial review of anybody in the history of politics, Trump said. Its either 100 or maybe more pages of names of companies, locations of companies, etc., etc., and its a very impressive list, and everybody says that. You dont learn much in a tax return.

The New York Times reported in May 2016 that while Trump has claimed his net worth is more than $10 billion, that figure cannot be verified with the disclosure form provided because the largest range for a single assets worth is over $50 million.

In September 2020, the New York Times revealed that Trump had paid no income tax in ten of the previous fifteen years and had paid just $750 in federal income tax the year he became President.

The investigation, based on tax records that the paper had procured and which extended back for over two decades, also revealed Trumps businesses reporting significant losses. In 2018, Trump declared $47.4 million in losses, while between 2000 and 2020 his golf courses alone lost $315.6 million.

Trump Aide Sarah Huckabee

HUCKABEE: I think what he said was, he didnt think global warming was the number one threat to the world.

HP: He said, I never said that.

HUCKABEE: Im sorry. I stepped out a couple times. I really dont know what youre talking about on that. The only global warming comment I heard was there at the end.

HP: Does he still believe global warming is a hoax? Youre a surrogate, youve got to represent him.

HUCKABEE: Im not him. Im his surrogate.

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Majority Of All Voters Say Climate Change Is Real More Democrats Consider It A Problem

One of the issues at the center of the 2020 election is climate change. A recent survey by the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University in St. Louis found that a majority of voters 95% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans recognize evidence for climate change. But partisans differ in how serious they view the issue, what they believe is causing global warming and their support for policies to address the problem.

The survey provides perspective on the challenges environmentalists face in building public support for stronger policies to address climate change support that can then pressure candidates and elected officials to adopt favorable policy positions, according to Steven Smith, the Kate M. Gregg Distinguished Professor of Social Science in Arts & Sciences.

The results of the American Social Survey mirror a similar survey conducted in before the presidential primaries.

Among the 43% of Trump supporters who deny that there is solid evidence for climate change, a majority endorsed the statement the advocates of global warming are deliberately misleading us for their own political reasons, rather than the statement that the scientific evidence is incomplete or misleading.

That adds up to about one-fifth of Trump supporters who are deniers and blame what they see as deliberately misleading environmentalists, Smith said.

Climate change policies

Not surprisingly, Biden and Trump supporters differ in their support for a range of policy proposals:

Political Groups Continue To Differ Over Role Human Activity Plays In Climate Change

Trump On His Administration’s Ominous Report On Climate Change: ‘I Don’t Believe It’

Most U.S. adults think human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels, contributes a great deal or some to climate change. About two-in-ten say human activity contributes not too much or not at all to climate change. Views on this question are about the same as they were last fall.

Americans continue to be deeply politically divided over how much human activity contributes to climate change. About seven-in-ten Democrats say human activity contributes a great deal to climate change, compared with roughly two-in-ten Republicans , a difference of 50 percentage points.

The difference is even wider among those at the ends of the ideological spectrum. A large majority of liberal Democrats say human activity contributes a great deal to climate change. Only 14% of conservative Republicans say the same 45% of this group says human activity contributes not too much or not at all to climate change.

Previous Pew Research Center analyses have found a similar dynamic in views of climate change by level of science knowledge, based on an 11-item index. Among Democrats, those with higher levels of science knowledge are more likely to say human activity influences climate change a great deal than those with lower levels of science knowledge. By contrast, there is no such relationship among Republicans.

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Ushering In A New Era Of Us Climate Action

When President-elect Biden takes office, he will inherit no shortage of crises to confront: the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustice, economic turmoil and climate change. Recognizing that these challenges are interwoven, the Biden-Harris transition team promised to seek out synergistic solutions to address multiple crises in tandem.

Climate action presents an opportunity for the United States not only to seize upon the next generation of technologies and manufacturing, but also contribute to ending systemic racial inequities, fortify frontline communities and ensure that clean energy benefits are accrued equitably. By enacting a portfolio of early executive actions, the Biden administration can use this crucial window to set the nation on a path to achieve decarbonization.

How Years Compare With The 20th Century Average

2019

He has tweeted less about climate change in recent years – and, since being elected president, he has adopted an ambiguous, inconsistent stance in interviews and speeches.

But even when he acknowledges the significance of climate change, he tends to frame it in terms of clean air and water , or the cost to business:

  • “I think there is some connectivity . There is some, something. It depends on how much. It also depends on how much it’s going to cost our companies.” – NYT interview, November 2016.
  • “I don’t think there’s a hoax. I do think there’s probably a difference. But I don’t know that it’s man-made… I don’t wanna give trillions and trillions of dollars.” – CBS interview, October 2018
  • “Climate change is very important to me. I’ve done many environmental impact statements in my life, and I believe very strongly in very, very crystal clear clean water and clean air.” – December 2019
  • “Nothing’s a hoax about that. It’s a very serious subject… I want the cleanest air, I want the cleanest water. The environment is very important to me. I also want jobs. I don’t want to close up our industry because somebody said you have to go with wind.” – January 2020

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Under The Green New Deal They Dont Like Clean Beautiful Natural Gas The Green New Deal Dont Know What They Like

What does he mean?

Campaigners for a Green New Deal want the world’s biggest economy to switch to 100% renewables within 10 years. Is Donald Trump suggesting that ambitious plan could be improved by using a planet-warming pollutant?

What’s the truth?

The proponents of a Green New Deal do know what they like, and it isn’t gas.

Claiming that gas is clean energy is ridiculous. Natural gas is a fossil fuel that when burnt releases substantial amounts of greenhouse gases. It contributes to climate change throughout its life cycle.

The production process of natural gas is also responsible for large amounts of methane emissions. Methane can leak out during this process .

The climate crisis is already here.

Humanity Needs To Take Out An Insurance Policy Against A Global

Why Do Donald Trump and Millions of Americans Think ...

Californias wildfires are just a preview of what to expect as the planet gets hotter.

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President Donald Trump says he doesnt believe in climate change. He doesnt have to believe it, but he does have to act to prevent it.

Why does he have a moral obligation to act? Because its the only prudent thing to do. Why should Trump act to fight climate change even if he doesnt personally believe in it?

Insurance.

I dont believe that my house is going to burn down, but I take measures to make sure it doesnt, and I take out insurance against catastrophic losses I might suffer. Even though the odds of my house burning in any year are pretty small, the cost of inaction could bankrupt me.

Trump doesnt believe he and Melania will break up, but he insisted on a prenuptial agreement to protect him in case they do. Ronald Reagan didnt believe the Soviets would cheat on the nuclear missile treaty, but he insisted that the trust he placed in them had to be verified by repeated monitoring.

Prudent people act to mitigate, insure, hedge and otherwise protect themselves against unlikely but catastrophic events all the time. Trump may not be prudent, but his position as president puts him in the position akin to that of a fiduciary, someone who must take care to reduce the risks facing the nation he promised to protect and defend.

The Carbon Age is over
Better safe than sorry

Heres the payoff matrix for each possibility:

Betting that hell doesnt exist

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