President says the existence of winter means climate change is a myth
Most of us understand by now that climate change is real — everyone from NASA to NOAA tells us so. But there are still some people out there who argue that because it can get really cold during the winter, global warming can’t be real. Which is kind of like saying that there can’t be people starving in the world because you’re eating a sandwich.
One such climate change denier is our own president, who tweeted his poorly-informed opinion about it yesterday and was quickly taken to task for it.
On Thursday, President Trump sent out a tweet arguing that global warming isn’t real because it’s going to be cold in New York on New Year’s Eve.
In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2017
(Or: “I mean, I’ve got four different kinds of meat on this pizza, and you’re going to tell me that people in Uganda are hungry? Get out of here.”)
Yes, President Trump, the voice of The Uninformed And Paranoid, thinks climate change isn’t real because it’s cold. He even went so far as to joke about us needing some of that “good old Global Warming.” Meanwhile, the number of climate-related disasters worldwide has more than tripled since 1980, but, you know…good joke.
Twitter, of course, went to work on Trump immediately:
If pooping is real then how come I am standing here NOT POOPING? https://t.co/AzyhAXayDu
— Justin Halpern (@justin_halpern) December 29, 2017
Using climate change as an argument against climate change is quite an amazing accomplishment https://t.co/WGGYE9H74a
— Nate (@BarstoolNate) December 29, 2017
Global ‘warming’ is a partial misnomer. It effects weather patterns in both temperature directions, intense cold included, as well as sea levels and currents, ecosystems and massive weather events like hurricanes. https://t.co/M52CqZI3RM
— Zelda Williams (@zeldawilliams) December 29, 2017
California is permanently on fire, but this all-hat-no-cattle cowboy is determined to fixate on a COLD WEATHER WINTER REGION at the END OF DECEMBER to deny science. Kids: this is what happens when you look directly at solar eclipses. https://t.co/vu810enKGY
— Adam Proteau (@Proteautype) December 29, 2017
1: This isn’t how climate change works.
2: We weren’t paying trillions of dollars. You didn’t understand the Paris Agreement in June and you still don’t.
3: Climate Change is real. It is a serious threat to our children. You need people on your team who can explain this to you. https://t.co/SQG9cMGOGe
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) December 29, 2017
This tweet will be *kisses fingers* when Mar-a-Lago falls into the sea.https://t.co/gDB4yrZ6s7
— Ally (@missmayn) December 29, 2017
"Global warming isn't real. It's cold outside."
"Sexism doesn't exist. Women can vote."
"Racism is over. Obama was president."
— Dad Jokes Are Oppressing Me (@thewobbleeffect) December 29, 2017
Global warming doesn't exist because I had to wear a jacket today and, besides, if the ice caps melt, the extra water will fall off the edge of the world and drown the devil.
— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) December 29, 2017
The president’s new global warming tweet is similar to arguments I often see on social media with stories about cold weather: the view that global warming, if it were happening, should be causing only warmer temperatures, not colder, because “warming” is in the term.
— Micah Grimes (@MicahGrimes) December 29, 2017
This is the standard dumb person line when it's cold re global warming. https://t.co/wGp06ZXWTK
— Kathleen Madigan (@kathleenmadigan) December 29, 2017
A man with literally every piece of information in the world at his fingertips looks at COLDEST NEW YEARS EVE ON RECORD and comes up with "yeah, climate change isn't real" https://t.co/hHEwXL1YZb
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) December 29, 2017
This last tweet is an excellent reminder of the fact that Trump has access to information from the best scientists in the world but refuses to listen to them. He would rather saddle up with people like journalist Christopher Booker, who has argued that climate change isn’t real because there was more ice in the Northern Hemisphere in January than there was the previous August. The one minor flaw is his argument is, as The Guardian put it: “Booker appear[s] incapable of distinguishing between summer and winter.”
There’s also Senator Jim Inhofe from Oklahoma, who once brought a snowball to the floor of the Senate and said, out loud, where people could hear him: “In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record…You know what this is? It’s a snowball. Just from outside here. So it’s very, very cold out.”
Those are the kind of people that President Trump is aligning himself with. Not 97% of climate scientists, who believe that global warming is real and that the link between human activities and climate change is as strong as the link between smoking and cancer. Nope. It’s the guy who used a snowball to prove that it’s cold. That’s the kind of intellectual rigor our President puts his faith in.
On the plus side, this does provide us with an easy solution to the problem:
It is warm in my house but cold outside, so global warming exists only in my house. If I just open the doors and windows, everything will even out and I will solve global warming. You're welcome.
— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) December 29, 2017
On the minus side, it’s bewilderingly and dangerously wrong. But, whatever. Thanks, polar bears! You had a good run. You too, Los Angeles. And all people everywhere? I think I’ll miss you most of all.
