Does Donald Trump Really Think Global Warming Is a Myth?

Millions of Americans, and millions more people around the world, have been watching parts of the American presidential debate. Given America’s power on a global scale, it’s understandable that people are interested – after all, it’s something that could affect us all.

With Donald Trump on one side and Hillary Clinton on the other, the debates have covered a number of important issues, the latest of which is global warming and climate change. Some people have suggested Donald Trump is among the non-believers in this scientifically proven phenomenon. Is that true?

Debatable

In one of a series of debates, the Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton brought up that Trump doesn’t believe in climate change. “Donald says climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese,” she asserted. He hastily responded that he never said anything of the sort. It’s certainly quite the claim from Clinton. Does she have any evidence? Of course what she is referring to is Trump’s post on social networking site Twitter, back in 2012. “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” he tweeted.

Opposite effect

The tweet has been shared nearly a hundred thousand times, which explains the notoriety of his opinion on the matter. But there are even some other, less viral bits of wisdom he’s shared. In December 2013, he shared his frustration with global warming. Great, he’s changed his mind, right? Not quite. Trump suggested that the actual consequence of global warming is that “the planet is freezing” and “the ice is building”.

It would be dangerous enough having a president who is indifferent on global warming – for both the US and the world. But to have a president who ignores solid scientific evidence could be a disaster. It’s particularly significant as it comes just weeks after current US president Barack Obama stressed the huge threat climate change poses.

Halting the progress

The main issue, of course, is that funding could be cut in areas where technology is being developed to monitor and tackle climate change. Developments in emission measurement, for instance, mean we can now detect trace emissions from soil. It can give use a deeper understanding of how the climate is affected over time. ‘Measuring trace gas emissions from soil: Solving the known unknowns’ explores the chamber technology which is enabling this advanced research and how they have developed over time.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons