Science takes a backseat as Trump ignores NASA data to insist the planet is cooling down
Factually incorrect
President Donald Trump dismissed concerns about global warming during a speech at a Texas truck factory on Thursday, telling the crowd the planet has actually gotten cooler. In videos circulated on social media, Trump urged voters not to back Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections and referred to their climate agenda as the “green new scam.”
“Remember, we’re supposed to all be dead by now, 12 years. In 12 years, who was that? AOC said that, right? ‘In 12 years, you’ll all be dead because of global warming.’ Well, that didn’t work out because the planet got cooler,” Trump said. He added, “In fact, you know, the ice that was melting, it’s right now just set a record. It’s the biggest ice cube that’s ever been in the history of the world.”
Trump also took aim at the terminology itself, arguing that Democrats had moved away from the phrase “global warming.” He stated, “So they changed it from global warming to climate change…Climate change: if it gets hot, cold, if it rains, if it snows, nobody knows the difference. It’s climate change. No, it’s a scam.”
He also accused Democrats of running a “scam” against data centers, suggesting their opposition was meant to keep his administration from succeeding. He said, “They’re doing the scam with data centers, by the way. That’s the new thing, because they want us to be unsuccessful. These things are making a fortune.”
What NASA’s climate data actually shows
Trump has dismissed climate change on other occasions as well, but data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) tells a different story. NASA says the evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate is unequivocal, and it identifies human activity as the main driver.
According to NASA, atmospheric carbon dioxide now sits at 428 parts per million, methane has climbed to 1,939 parts per billion, and global temperatures are 1.19 degrees Celsius above the 1951 to 1980 average. Some indicators are moving downward instead, and in this case that signals a warming planet rather than an improving one.
Ice is the clearest example. NASA’s data shows Earth’s ice sheets losing roughly 391 billion metric tons of mass per year, the opposite of the record-setting ice Trump described. NASA lists melting ice sheets, shrinking sea ice, and rising sea levels among the effects of global warming that are already underway.
Trump’s remarks on data centers come amid his administration’s push for more artificial intelligence development.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
Follow The Mary Sue:
