Cliff Notes
- Donald Trump dismissed climate change as “the greatest con job,” stating that predictions from the UN and others are wrong, and insultingly referred to their creators as “stupid people.”
- Numerous scientists, including Professor Pierre Friedlingstein and Pete Smith, responded vigorously, stating Trump lacks scientific understanding and calling his comments ignorant and arrogant.
- Experts emphasised the reality of climate change, with statements highlighting that fossil fuel consumption is causing critical environmental changes and warning of the potential consequences of misinformation.
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‘Climate change is real – Trump has no knowledge’: Scientists hit back at president’s ‘con job’ claim
Donald Trump labelled climate change as “the greatest con job” during his speech at the UN General Assembly earlier.
The US president said: “All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong.
“They were made by stupid people that have cost their countries fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success.”
Scientists have been giving their reactions – and it’s fair to say they’re not pulling their punches, either.
‘His salary depends on not understanding’
Professor Pierre Friedlingstein, chair in mathematical modelling of climate systems at the University of Exeter, said simply of Trump: “To quote Upton Sinclair, it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
‘Trump has no knowledge of science’
Pete Smith, professor of soils and global change at the University of Aberdeen, added: “Trump has no knowledge of science and is not qualified to judge what is or is not robust science. His comments on climate change, like his pronouncements on vaccines and links between painkillers and autism, are arrogant and ignorant in equal measure.”
‘Illogical, ignorant denial is real greatest con job’
Martin Siegert, professor of geosciences at the University of Exeter, said of Trump’s con claim: “The greatest con job is not the rock-solid decades-old fully-tested science that proves fossil-fuel burning causes global heating, dirty air and nature loss, but rather the illogical, ignorant, antiscientific denial of it.”
‘My jaw just hit the floor’
Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, said “my jaw just hit the floor”.
“Donald Trump can predict what he likes, and believe what he likes, but his rhetoric cannot change the laws of physics,” she said.
“The ‘stupid people’ have shown how human activity and fossil fuels are heating up our planet, with impacts on societies and ecosystems everywhere in the world.”
‘Climate change is real’
Professor Eric Wolff, chair of the Royal Society’s biodiversity, environment and climate committee, said “climate change is real”.
“The burning of fossil fuels and other human activities is resulting in fundamental changes to our planet,” he said.
“To suggest it is a ‘con job’ is flying in the face both of what we can observe, and of physics.”
‘A real tragedy’
Keith Shine, regius professor of meteorology and climate science at the University of Reading said it is “a real tragedy that a US president can be so poorly informed on how climate is changing and why climate is changing”.
‘The president enlightenment left behind’
Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, said Trump’s “daft outburst is perfectly consistent with his other bogus beliefs”.
“All these myths will potentially cause harm to the American people if they believe them,” he said.
“He is truly the president that enlightenment left behind.”
‘Industry’s own reports warned of climate change in 1980s’
“Even the fossil-fuel industry’s own reports from as far back as the 1980s show the reality of man-made climate change, with one report warning ‘Civilisation could prove a fragile thing’.”
John Marsham, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Leeds, adds: “If under Trump the USA doesn’t invest in renewables, it doesn’t just delay the action we need – it allows other countries to get ahead and profit from the renewables revolution that is providing cheap, secure energy, and jobs.”