Donald Trump, known for often giving accurate and non biased information, made some interesting claims about climate change. We believe we might have found that some of his statements… are actually false!!!
Disclaimer: I fully support dragging Trump to inform people about climate change.
While it’s good to point out lies and falsehoods, anyone who cares about truth is not listening to Trump, and anyone still listening to him does not care about truth.
I thought that, and nearly didn’t read the article, but it’s really interesting - and useful to have these refutations to anyone who trots out these lies/distortions when talking to you.
Not that arguing with facts is actually going to change their mind, but at least you can feel good about winning the argument!
Interesting/useful bits:
- The term “climate change” was initially popularized by Republicans under G.W. Bush as they wanted a softer term that sounded less “frightening”. It’s a better term though, because it covers non-temperature effects like ocean acidification.
- A warmer atmosphere means more water can be held in the air, which leads to more rain (often more extreme) but also more droughts as warmer air can remove more water from an area.
- The fact that the climate has (slowly) changed in the past doesn’t mean we aren’t causing change now. The faulty logic is akin to People have died of cancer in the past; therefore, cigarettes don’t cause cancer now.
- NOAA projects 3.5 feet to 7 feet sea-level rise along America’s coastlines by 2100.
- Unsurprisingly, windmills aren’t driving whales “a little batty”. Also, wind farms are responsible for just 0.03% of all human-related bird deaths in the U.S. and onshore wind is one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity.
- The primary reason the US Army wants to electrify its fighting vehicles is to reduce wartime casualties (no need for refuelling missions and electric is stealthier due to being quieter and cooler).
That’s a pretty good summary.
A couple more details:
And once the memo came out, and people ridiculed the Republicans for it, they had talk-radio hosts claim the Democrats were responsible for a name change for the next decade or so, causing much public confusion.
That NOAA projection made me question what “sea level” even means if “sea level rise” can vary so much regionally. The extreme high end of the range (Gulf coast) is 18". The extreme low end (Carribean) is 6": 12" difference over about 2500 miles.
I did a shallow dive into sea level and learned that a variety of factors go into the calculation of sea level. Those factors have enough regional variability to mean that sea level is, in fact, a regional phenomenon.
The best explanation I found comes from NASA: https://climate.nasa.gov/explore/ask-nasa-climate/2990/sea-level-101-what-determines-the-level-of-the-sea/
