Donald Trump presented himself as both a critic and an expert of the climate crisis as he claimed 'no one is more into the climate' than him.
The former president is not exactly known as a keen climate activist; in fact, during his time in office he either loosened or entirely got rid of almost 100 rules and regulations relating to pollution in the air, water and atmosphere.
In 2012, Trump said climate change was 'created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive' before later claiming this was a joke, and he has repeatedly claimed the mere existence of cold weather is enough to disprove climate change.
Despite the fact such claims are unfounded, Trump implied he was clued up on the topic of climate change during an interview with Fox Business today, 21 March, when he was asked if he believed the climate is changing because of the actions of humans.
Advert
Despite claiming to be 'more into the climate' than anyone else, Trump dismissed climate change as simply 'weather' and argued it has 'always been changing'.
“In my opinion, you have a thing called weather, and you go up and you go down," Trump said. "If you look into the 1920s they were talking about global freezing. In other words, the globe was going to freeze, and then they go ‘global warming’, then they couldn’t use that because the temperatures were actually quite cool, and many different things so that now they just talk about climate change. The climate has always been changing.”
Trump's comments have been met with criticism on Twitter, with one person assuring they were 'not joking' as they quoted the former president, while another labelled him an 'idiot' for his view.
The Republican also came under fire earlier this month for implying rising ocean levels were actually desirable while at a rally in South Carolina, saying: "The world is going to be destroyed because the oceans are going to rise 1/100 of an inch within the next 300 years. It’s going to kill everybody. It’s going to create more oceanfront property. That’s what it’s going to do."
Advert
Interestingly enough, Trump was among dozens of business leaders who actually supported legislation combating climate change in 2009, when he signed a statement arguing that '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 appeared in The New York Times, but it seems clear that Trump no longer believes such an outcome is true.
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]
Topics: Donald Trump, Climate Change, Environment, Politics
