Trump's Climate Ignorance Would be Laughable if the Implications weren't so Serious

Trump is likely to be the Republican nominee for President of the United States and at first glance this is hilarious, however if he were to elected it would be an unprecedented disaster for climate and the environment.

It is surreal that the man who is likely to secure the Republican nomination for the most powerful office in the world could be so incredibly ignorant about the scientific consensus on climate change.

Here is a review of some of his absurd climate statements and a summary of what he would do to the environment if he were to be elected President.

Trump’s Climate Ignorance

The Donald has said outlandish things about climate change and global warming for years. In 2012 he tweeted that climate change was created by the Chinese to undermine the US economy

On Fox News in 2014 he bluntly stated that climate change is a hoax.

He has used his Twitter account to deride clean energy like wind turbines. In 2012 he tweeted that “windmills are destroying every country they touch — and the energy is unreliable and terrible.”

Since he threw his hat in the ring to be the Republican nominee he has doubled down on his climate denial and he has vowed to prevent the EPA and other federal agencies from doing anything about it. In the February 25th Republican Presidential Debate the Donald stated that he would make massive cuts to environmental protections explaining that “we waste all this money.”

According to a Think Progress article Trump has used complaints about cold weather to doubt or attempt to refute climate change 31 times.

Here are a few videos that put Trump’s climate ignorance on display

Trump is unintentionally hilarious as he demonstrates in this video where he calls global warming a hoax and he further laments that it interferes with his efforts to manage his comb-over.

He is a Joke

As explained by Louis C.K., Trump may be fun to laugh at but don’t encourage him, “He’s an insane bigot. He is dangerous” Louis says. “the guy is Hitler. And by that I mean that we are being Germany in the 30s. Do you think they saw the shit coming? Hitler was just some hilarious and refreshing dude with a weird comb over who would say anything at all.”

Louise gets the apocalyptic psychology behind some of the support Trump enjoys:

“…voting for Trump is a way of saying “fuck it. Fuck them all..It’s a version of national Suicide. Or it’s like a big hit off of a crack pipe…But you have to know this is not healthy.”

Trump’s bid for president may be funny but it is no laughing matter.

“…listen to Trump. Listen to all of it… He’s a fucking liar…if you vote for him because of how you feel right now, the minute he’s president, you’re going to regret it…Trump is a messed up guy with a hole in his heart that he tries to fill with money and attention. He can never ever have enough of either and he’ll never stop trying. He’s sick…He’s a sad man. But all this makes him horribly dangerous if he becomes president.”

As suggested by Louis, lets take a close look at Trump’s positions on climate and the environment. As reviewed in a Think Progress article, Trump supports drilling in the Atlantic and the Arctic, he opposes a carbon tax, cap-and-trade, or eliminating subsidies and tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry. He supports fossil fuel pipelines and fracking while opposing improved rail safety and the clean power plan.

President Trump

Although for many it is an unthinkable, apocalyptic scenario, what would happen on the environmental front if Trump were elected President in 2016? Our friends at Grist have answered that question with an amusing article titled “The Environment Under President Trump.”

Once you stop laughing the reality is actually a nightmare and not just for America but for the entire planet. On the first day of his presidency Trump would withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement signed at COP21. A host of other nations including China and India would soon follow suit. Journalists who have the audacity to question Potus on the environment would be silenced. It would be open season for fossil fuels and other mining operations and pipelines would be built at a record pace including the Keystone XL.

Under a Trump presidency Congress would dismantle the Clean Power Plan, Methane Rules, and of course the EPA and the Department of Energy. Research on climate science would also come to a screeching halt.

Trump may be getting a lot of press but that does not mean he is popular with the majority of Americans. According to a March Poll that pits Trump against a number of impossible adversaries, Americans would rather have almost anybody or anything win the nomination other than The Donald. Unsurprisingly, the poll indicates that Trump would lose if he ran against Joe Biden, Mitt Romney, and a third-term Barack Obama.

Americans would rather see George Clooney, Ellen Degeneres, Denzel Washington, and even Mel Gibson or disgraced American Apparel CEO Dov Charney as President rather than Trump. In fact the poll indicates that Americans would rather see Captain Crunch, a robot or even a burrito win the nomination rather than Trump.

The poll further suggests that if Trump wins the nomination more than a quarter of Republicans would be willing to cross the aisle to vote for a Democratic candidate (26 percent claim they would switch for Hillary, 31 percent for Biden, and 24 percent for Obama).

The GOP is Responsible for Trump

It is hard to sympathize with the GOP’s and the fossil fuel industry’s concerns about the unelectability of the Donald. The Republican’s have embraced fossil fuels and created a narrative including climate denial that fostered the right conditions for Trump to flourish. They have deliberately incited knee jerk outrage at everything President Obama and the Democrats do. They have contributed to the incivility in politics and then they complain when it makes a circus out of their primary process and ultimately elects an ignorant narcissist as the Republican presidential nominee.