Donald Trump’s running mate is breaking with the Republican nominee’s claim that climate change is not the result of human activity.
Vice presidential nominee Mike Pence said Tuesday “there’s no question” that human activity affects both the climate and the environment.
At Monday’s presidential debate, Democrat Hillary Clinton challenged Trump’s views, saying: “Donald thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. I think it’s real.” Trump interrupted with “I did not, I do not say that.”
But in 2012, Trump tweeted that the “concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” He later claimed he was kidding, but he’s also repeated the assertion that climate change is a hoax benefiting China. And in 2014, Trump tweeted: “Snowing in Texas and Louisiana, record setting freezing temperatures throughout the country and beyond. Global warming is an expensive hoax!”
Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, tried to move discussion away from those comments Tuesday, saying on CNN that Trump believes “that climate change is naturally occurring” but the causes are not man-made.
The world’s scientific organizations say the Earth’s climate is changing because of the buildup of heat-trapping gases, especially carbon dioxide, from the burning of coal, oil and gas.
Pence, appearing separately on CNN, said, “let’s follow the science,” but he warned against rushing into environmental restrictions that drive jobs out of the country and put Americans out of work.
Below, more astounding examples of serious cognitive break in the republican establishment. Is this the real “neurological disorder” we should be concerned about?
I used to say that climate denial was perhaps a neurological disorder like Autism, but some readers pointed out to me that Autism is a spectrum, and often a characteristic of some very capable and productive citizens.
So, I’m thinking it’s more related to Zombies, parasitic brain worms, or brain eating amoebas. Fruitful area for research.
How can someone deny having said something with such conviction when there is readily available evidence that he did? This is the question The Huffington Post posed to several of Trump’s surrogates after the debate ended Monday night. Here are their explanations.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)
HUFFPOST: During the debate Donald Trump definitively said that he never once said that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. But here is a tweet where he says just that. [We attempt to show her the tweet.]
BLACKBURN: Well, I don’t have my glasses on.
HP: Come on! OK, I’ll read it. [We read it.]
BLACKBURN: Well, many times when we talk about issues related to the climate, y’all have countries that would not be forced to come into compliance with some of these agreements. Then they will say they don’t have to abide by that, they plan to buy more coal.
HP: Do you believe that climate change is a hoax?
BLACKBURN: I do not believe in climate change. I think the Earth is in a cooling trend. It is not in a warming trend.
HP: You currently think the Earth is in a cooling trend?
BLACKBURN: It is in a cooling trend. It has cooled for about the past 10 years. And the thing that is so interesting is that when you say global warming or climate change, the climate will change. So yes, in that, I agree that it does. You have to ask, “Is it cyclical?”
HP: You know we’ve had about nine of the hottest years in the history of the planet have been in the past 10 years?
BLACKBURN: We have also seen the past 10 years a little bit of a cooling.
Note: The idea that the Earth is cooling is wrong.
Trump aide Sarah Huckabee
HP: [Reads her Trump’s tweet.]
HUCKABEE: I think what he said was, he didn’t think global warming was the number one threat to the world.
HP: He said, “I never said that.”
HUCKABEE: I’m sorry. I stepped out a couple times. I really don’t know what you’re talking about on that. The only global warming comment I heard was there at the end.
HP: Does he still believe global warming is a hoax? You’re a surrogate, you’ve got to represent him.
HUCKABEE: I’m not him. I’m his surrogate.
Republican National Committee senior strategist Sean Spicer
HP: How does he say he never said climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese when there is this tweet?
SPICER: I didn’t follow that. I didn’t hear what actually happened.
HP: Does he still believe what he put in this tweet?
SPICER: I don’t know. You have to ask him.
Sen. David Purdue (R-Ga.)
HP: How do you square the statement from the debate with this tweet?
PURDUE: You’ll have to ask him that. What he is really talking about is how unrealistic her expectation of switching to global green energy overnight is.
HP: But as a surrogate for the campaign, is the campaign’s position that climate change is a hoax?
PURDUE: Well, talk to the campaign
HP: You’re with the campaign.
PURDUE: I understand that. Right now, it is not proven. There are controversies about that. There are experts on both sides that will take opposing views on that. And for us to take the entire direction of our country and sacrifice our economy and put millions of people out of work because of something that they, the Democrats, are perpetrating, I find really irresponsible.
Note: The vast majority of scientific experts believe that climate change is real and that human activity is contributing to it.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)
HP: What do you make of him saying he never said that and the existence of this tweet?
SESSIONS: I’m not sure what he had in his mind when he said what he said. He has not been saying that recently. He has been respectful of it, but he does believe in all energy sources and many of those are CO2-producing energy sources.
HP: Is it the campaign’s belief that climate change is a hoax?
SESSIONS: Well, I’m going to tell you what I believe.
HP: But you’re here on the campaign’s behalf.
SESSIONS: I believe that we don’t need to be spending, making the taxpayers pay, much more money for their electricity from solar cells.
HP: But is it the campaign’s position that climate change is a hoax?
SESSIONS: No. I don’t think it is a hoax. What I say is climate change, the explanation the scientists gave for climate change, made some sense: that CO2 could be a greenhouse effect in causing the temperature to increase. However, 15 to 18 years have gone by and we haven’t seen anything like the predictions come true that they predicted.
After the bad news of the Antarctic lakes, this post made me smile. Not because it contains any “happy” news—-the zombification of the Repugnant Party and their infection with brain-eating amoebas is not good for the country—-but because it’s so well done (I do appreciate good visuals and irony).
Pence is another slimeball that is trying to keep the Repugnant ticket from totally sinking into the swamp by making grudging admissions that AGW exists—-I hope Kaine nails him down at the VEEP debate—-it would be great if Kaine could draw him out more and Hillary could turn that against Trump when next they meet.
(That’s if they can ever get to AGW—-flash in the WashPost this AM has Trump saying that he plans to go after Hillary big-time on Bills’ “infidelities” at the next debate. DUH! The brain-eating amoebas are gluttonously feasting on the “brain trust” at Trump headquarters—-I wonder if the amoebas insert a pseudopod into their food vacuoles so that they can “vomit” and make room to eat more Repugnant brains?).
The recounting of the responses from the Repugnant spokes-zombies is terrific. There is NO explanation for this other than brain dysfunction, whether it’s caused by biological invasions or the types of things outlined in “The Republican Brain”. It was nice to see the cover pic of TRB—-anyone who hasn’t read it needs to do so ASAP, as well as read “The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Govern” and “Dark Money”—-those three books will tell you all you need to know about what goes on in the minds of the right wing and why they are so damaging to the country.
PS Kellyanne Conway is scarier than any of the zombies or pod people that we have seen in horror or sci-fi movies. The level of her “brain-deadness” induces shudders rather than chuckles
Yes, nail these guys by rubbing their noses into the human waste that is their public position statements, in real-time at the debates. Being “nice” and “respectful” is such a horribly wrong and dangerous strategy. Remember the origin of the word “shrink”, which is what a psychotherapist does to someone’s head, who’s delusions of grandeur provide more delay before reality forces confrontation with their pathologies. As long as we pretend there’s really a debate going on (vs the reality of psychopathology), the more we invite the average voter to hide in “the science isn’t settled” or “it won’t be so bad” as a way to preserve the delusion that economic growth and climate health are sympatico. Plenty of studies show the physical brain pathologies of Conservatives. “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it ‘fate’” – Carl Jung. So let’s continue to force them to be conscious of their insanity, they NEED the pain!
Bobby Jindal warned the GOP to stop being the Stupid Party. Unfortunately he didn’t define what stupid means so they’re keeping on keeping on.
The Republican platform is interesting in that it says little about climate change, but it says that climate change is far from an urgent problem.
The meat of the matter instead is a number of provisions to halt any action on climate: ending the clean power initiative, withdrawing from the UN framework convention on climate change, opposing a carbon tax, stuff like that. The platform also states its support for a variety of initiatives to burn more coal and petroleum. And calls for abolishing the EPA.
I think the take-away is that the consensus Republican position is to actively deny that that climate change should be addressed. Whether climate change is “real” or not, whether it comes from human activity or not, whether it *can* be effected or not, are not part of the consensus.
But they are all on board with burning more coal and yapping about how addressing the problem will put everybody out of work and bust our life style back to the stone age.
The HufPo reporter’s experience is consistent with this. They don’t want to talk about the causes or reality of climate change, they are all over the map on that. But they agree on an imperative to do-nothing.
The HufPo reporter’s reference to “nine of the hottest years in the history of the planet” is problematical, don’t you think?
They could be more precise, but there is a (partial) excuse for their usage. ‘History’ was (and is, in academic contexts) used to refer to the human past as documented in the written record (differentiating it from archaeology and other ways of studying the past that don’t appeal to writing). There was a transition after which the record of ancient structures and artifacts was fully accepted as a sound basis for conclusions about the past, independent of written records (and paleontology later drew on the same kinds of argument as it established itself).
Umm… I think when a reporter refers to “the history of the planet” it conventionally does not mean the span of discernible human history.
It was a quibble, which is why I put it at the end.
Meanwhile the Conservatives ensure that others eat America’s lunch whilst Hell takes car of their Breakfast.
http://gizmodo.com/new-wind-turbines-could-power-japan-for-50-years-after-1787191781
Atsushi Shimizu is the inventor of the world’s first typhoon turbine—an extremely durable, eggbeater-shaped device that can not only withstand the awesome forces generated by a typhoon, it can convert all that power into useable energy. Shimizu’s calculations show that a sufficiently large array of his turbines could capture enough energy from a single typhoon to power Japan for 50 years.
Tests of a prototype yielded 30 percent efficiency, which is 10 percent lower than propeller-based turbines. The difference, of course, is that Shimizu’s turbines can actually survive a storm. Back in 2013, Typhoon Usagi destroyed eight conventional turbines, while damaging eight.
A functional prototype was installed near Okinawa earlier this summer, and the next big step is to test the device under high-wind conditions. All that’s needed now is a typhoon.
And for a record of interest from WaPo
During one of the country’s hottest summers, New Orleans quietly set a mind-boggling record. On 43 nights, the temperature did not drop below 80 degrees in New Orleans, according to the Louisiana state climatologist.
It blows the previous record out of the water — 13 nights in 2010. It’s also incredible considering in an average summer, New Orleans has just 2.1 nights at or above 80 degrees.
Interesting times ahead
Meanwhile food for thought, yeah I know the source.
http://www.inquisitr.com/3547049/just-a-friendly-reminder-that-donald-and-hillary-are-pals/
It’s true, though. Donald and the Clintons have a longstanding and well-documented friendship that goes back decades. They play golf together. They go to each other’s weddings. Politico reports that their kids play together. According to a report from The Washington Post, Mr. Trump and Mr. Clinton even shared a long phone call prior to Trump’s announcement that he’d run for president, wherein associates of both men confirm that Bill encouraged Donald to run. They’re tighter than Kaufman and Lawler.
Their kids play together? Neither of them have any kids who are not already adults. (I hope “play together” is not some snide euphemism.)
“CO2 could be a greenhouse effect in causing the temperature to increase”. This would almost be humorous if he were attempting to be funny. It’s quite ludicrous at this point in time to continue to be denying climate change. In the words of Joe Biden, it is like “denying gravity”. The list of people looked at in this post is a clear example of how climate denialism prevails. Mike Pence attempting to dodge the question demonstrates a form of subtle denialism, which is really just as bad. Our campaign Cool Down Climate Change Denial aims to do just that. We feel this is the greatest barrier for real change to occur and we want as many people as possible to know that too. Thank you again for the informative post. Feel free to have a read of some of our posts. We’d love to hear your thoughts.