Trumped Up Climate Change

By: Heather Reid

Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump has stated in many different ways and at different times that he does not believe in human-made climate change. Trump has even referred to climate change as being a hoax. During the first Presidential debate, Hillary Clinton said that Trump believes climate change is a hoax made up by the Chinese for their benefit. Trump denied it, but still stands by the claim that it is just weather naturally changing. He does not see validity in the claim that climate change is real and is an issue America needs to address. Trump has shared his opinion on many occasions and the following example is from the Palin Update on August 3, 2015.

"You look back and they were calling it global cooling and global warming and global everything, but you look back and the biggest tornados were in the 1890s, the biggest hurricanes were in the 1860s and 1870s. It's weather. You're going to have bad weather. So often I watch the evening newscasts and every time there is a rainstorm some place, and then they wonder why they don't do well, they say, 'It's raining here and it's raining there,' usually leading the program. I call it weather. Maybe there's a little bit of change, I don't happen to believe it’s manmade."

Trump simplified the issues. He did not look into weather change or the human contribution to climate change. Trump made it clear that he does not think it is the country’s responsibility to do anything regarding climate change, primarily because of his belief that it is not real.

Some people agree with Trump in thinking that climate change is a man-made idea. Why is this still something people believe? Is global warming simply an issue of the weather naturally changing? Are humans contributing to the issue? Is the problem actually more serious than changing weather?

Since the industrial revolution, the Earth has been changing and the greenhouse gases have significantly increased. Human activities have contributed to an increase in greenhouse gases, mainly because of the burning of fossil fuels. The human caused increase in the greenhouse gases is linked closely with the warming of the surface temperature of Earth. The temperature has risen about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 140 years. Something that is confusing is that people see isolated colder weather and instantly assume that climate change is a hoax. Along with climate change, the weather changes in different places. A certain area can experience differences from year to year and cooling is something that illustrates the difference in weather. Localized cooling is not something that devalues climate change.

Recent climate change is greater than naturally occurring global warming. The rate at which carbon dioxide levels are rising is also important to notice. In 2012, the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide amounted to 40% more than in the year 1900. Historically, temperature and carbon dioxide levels have fluctuated, but more recently, the increases have been steadier and are       changing more quickly. There has not been this much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for over 800,000 years. The burning of fossil fuels and deforestation both contribute to the increase in carbon dioxide. A problem with removal of the carbon dioxide is there are not many current working ideas on how to remove the carbon dioxide from the environment.

A difficult part of addressing climate change is that people want to simplify the problem. The reality is that climate change is complex and deals with more than just the weather changing. It deals with the physical, biological, and chemical processes that take place on the planet. All of these affect the atmosphere and environment. Some of the concerns of climate change are a warmer climate, the oceans rising, and more extreme weather events.  Another concern is the oceans are acidifying because they are managing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The carbon cycle as illustrated below explains why this is happening. The acidification makes it so shells and coral have difficulty growing and are likely to dissolve, disrupting ocean life of many types. The acidification of the oceans may have more repercussions than we currently recognize and needs to be studied more.

      Carbon dioxide moves in a cyclical manner. The ocean handles a large portion of the carbon dioxide generated by human activity.

Created by NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Climate change is not something we can ignore and only address when it becomes too severe. Some of the problems are irreversible and decisions have to be made prior to the appearance of a crisis situation. Ignoring the claims of climate change does not reverse the effects or help in any way. A difficult thing to accept is that if humans were to stop use of all fossil fuels and eliminate carbon dioxide emissions, the world still would get warmer. In order to reverse global warming, it would take complete stopping of greenhouse gas and human emissions over an extended period of time to reduce carbon dioxide to acceptable levels. In the meantime, the problem is that carbon dioxide levels continue to rise.

Trump may not believe in man-made climate change, but science backs up the claim. Climate change is undeniable. The truth is that climate change affects our lives and will continue to affect them even more. We can ignore the significant amounts of carbon dioxide in the environment, or we can continue to research and try to find solutions for the problem. Trump may think the weather is only as deep as the puddles the rain makes, but this issue of climate change is real and a serious problem in our future as well as our lives today. The time is now to address the issues and figure out how to improve the problem. Trump ignoring science is not going to get us anywhere.