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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump is backing off his claim that climate change is a hoax but says he doesn’t know if it’s manmade and suggests that the climate will “change back again”.
In an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes that aired last night, Trump said he doesn’t want to put the US at a disadvantage in responding to climate change.
“I think something’s happening. Something’s changing and it’ll change back again,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s a hoax. I think there’s probably a difference. But I don’t know that it’s manmade. I will say this: I don’t want to give trillions and trillions of dollars. I don’t want to lose millions and millions of jobs.”
Trump called climate change a hoax in November 2012 when he sent a tweet stating, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive”.
He later said he was joking about the Chinese connection, but in years since has continued to call global warming a hoax.
“I’m not denying climate change,” he said in the interview.
“But it could very well go back. You know, we’re talking about over a … millions of years.”
As far as the climate “changing back”, temperature records kept by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that the world hasn’t had a cooler-than-average year since 1976 or a cooler-than-normal month since the end of 1985.
Hurricane visit
Trump, who is scheduled today to visit areas of Georgia and Florida damaged by Hurricane Michael, also expressed doubt over scientists’ findings linking the changing climate to more powerful hurricanes.
“They say that we had hurricanes that were far worse than what we just had with Michael,” said Trump, who identified “they” as “people” after being pressed by 60 Minutes correspondent Leslie Stahl.
She asked, “What about the scientists who say it’s worse than ever?” the president replied, “You’d have to show me the scientists because they have a very big political agenda”.
Trump’s comments came just days after a Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a warning that global warming would increase climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security and economic growth.
The report detailed how Earth’s weather, health and ecosystems would be in better shape if the world’s leaders could somehow limit future human-caused warming.
Citing concerns about the pact’s economic impact, Trump said in 2017 that the US will leave the Paris climate accord. The agreement set voluntary greenhouse gas emission targets in an effort to lessen the impact of fossil fuels.]
Washington
On a different topic, Trump told 60 Minutes that he’s been surprised by Washington being a tough, deceptive and divisive place, though some accuse the real estate mogul elected president of those same tactics.
“So I always used to say the toughest people are Manhattan real estate guys and blah, blah,” he said. “Now I say they’re babies.”
He said the political people in Washington have changed his thinking.
“This is the most deceptive, vicious world. It is vicious, it’s full of lies, deceit and deception,” he said.
“You make a deal with somebody and it’s like making a deal with – that table.”
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A terrifying reality for loyalists is that they are Irish. British taxpayers just see them as an expensive drain on their taxes. The sooner loyalists realise they live on an island which is off the mainland of Europe the better.
@Dave Phelan: The sooner the loyalists realise that GB doesn’t want them anymore the better. They can’t be that stupid to the fact that British people will always see them as them as Irish whether they come from Dublin, Cork or Belfast.
@Joe Johnson: Not an easy thing to admit to oneself though.
@Joe Johnson: the ROI doesn’t want them either. That’s the problem. I think they realise this. It’s the no one likes us we don’t care attitude.
@GrumpyAulFella: the Republic doesn’t want rabid unionists or rabid nationalists. There’s a particular mindset in unionist and nationalist ghettos in NI that is toxic, and the last thing we need in a stable Republic.
@John Mulligan: Stable Republic? Housing crisis, Homelessness, Crumbling Health service , Billions taken from the economy and Billions yet to be repaid for the gangsterism of the banks facilated by the same political parties now in power .Scandal after scandal. A government that between them have governed this state since it’s foundation and are in government together now just to preserve the status quo. When you recall the Taoiseach Martin stated they was no bank bailout and the future Taoiseach Varadkar under criminal investigation, Is that the stable Republic you comment about.
@Donal Desmond: lots of soundbites, but it doesn’t take away the reality for people living in Ireland. were consistently at the to of quality of life rankings, relatively low tax to most of Europe for low paid and a destination for thousands to start a new life. if you can’t tell the difference between 100 years of stability here, and the unstable chaos in northern Ireland, then you’re probably more aligned with the 23% looking to destabilise that peaceful republic.
@John Mulligan: just because one is born in a stable …
@Donal Desmond: is there anything in your post there that can’t be said about the state of NI and the UK? I don’t think so. But our standard of living is good in the South, we’re at full employment, our economy is strong. We’ve much to be content about. Back in the 80s you drove across the border northbound onto nice roads, cheap petrol and goods, flashy houses. Now the opposite is true.
@GrumpyAulFella: They now realise they are a minority in the north. The next project is to get your tribe of partitionist’s in the south to realise that You too are a bitter lost minority, and the vast majority of decent people living on this island will enjoy, future unity, peace and prosperity, despite all your bitter ranting!
@John Mulligan: John the record is scratched, put down that old worn out Fine Gael book of quotes and replies, and instead post something in your own words, if you can string a sentence together.
@Angela McCarthy: have you learned how to speak as Gaeilge yet? I don’t know who “your” are supposed to be but the Shinner way has always been to accuse anyone who isn’t a supporter of the political wing of the IRA as a Blueshirt. So I’m guessing that you think that I’m a Blueshirt. That’s hilarious. It’s almost a Putin thing, sue the media (RTE), threaten to shut down the state broadcaster (RTE)when in power, sue your political opposition (Eastwood), sanitise your web site (Russia content removed overnight), label those who do not support your party as fascist Blueshirts. The parallels with Putin’s Russia are stark comrade.
@Donal Desmond: You are confusing stable with well run. We have (relative to most countries) no extreme right-wing politicians, an independent judiciary, low levels of corruption by international standards, a police force who aren’t randomly arresting or disappearing people, we not run by a homicidal dictator and our army isn’t constantly taking over the country with coups.
Brilliant article. Great observations, delivered with humour.
One of the best articles I have read in the Journal in a long while.
@Pat Casey: refreshing pat
Very good article peter
Great article well written and funny.Not getting bogged down too deep if the fact that it’s sectarianism that keeps the DUP in power
Great article Peter.
Maybe go into journalism full time Peter you nailed it, it’s odd that an election campaign that as he put it was unusually interesting and energised only had a 54% turn out.
Got as far as “mainland” and then quit the article.
@Insider at RTE: don’t worry mate they will be plenty of copy and paste afp articles coming later..this was a great article I’m so glad one word didn’t sway me from this articulate,humorous piece of writing
@Insider at RTE: really, to the DUP the mainland is the UK, I didn’t get the opinion he was referring to anything or anyone in the republic thinking that way. You read a single word and assume it’s referring to x which you don’t like and just stop reading, I think that is really sad. How do you ever expect to learn or increase your understanding of world if you just stop engaging the second something displeases you.
@Insider at RTE: Your pursuit of enlightenment and your searching to see the other man’s perspective is inspiring. It’s no wonder you’ve converted so many Unionists to the idea of a United Ireland.
Rees Mogg a devout catholic :) , never would have guessed!
@François Pignon: Actually makes sense if you think about it. In a weird way.
@François Pignon: — So was the Nazi Roman Catholic priest who ran Slovakia during WW2, so it’s no evidence of someone being a saintly person :P
@François Pignon: Boris Johnson is a baptized Catholic too, Devout is very a subjective term.
Good article, it will be interesting to see how the results pan out.
Best overall view of the situation in the North I have read in a long time.
An independent NI would do the trick. Any nationalist has more in common with a unionist at this stage. Shared land and shared history. Sadly too many are unable to see that.
@Lucy Legacy: How about an Independent Munster or Leinster or whatever province you come from Lucy?
Great read. Fundamentalism is the issue. Unionism knows it’s place in westminster, that the english are indifferent to its cause. I think as long as they have MP seats they will use their leverage to get what they want, uncontested by SF. For extremists such as DUP there is but obe objective, avoid a UI. Doesn’t matter how bad economy is.
London being one of the world’s great cities yet most Londoners couldn’t point Ireland out on a map and therein lies the problem for Ireland for the last several hundred years.
This article regurgitates the same old tired out commentary, whilst failing to engage at all adequately with the core issues, such as the significant majority of people In NI who do not want this so-called “united Ireland”.
@Keith McNair: The topic was about a party stuck in their ways that might be getting left behind by the electorate …. wasn’t anything to do with a united Ireland. And it dealt with it’s topic very well.
@Keith McNair: “Significant majority” – hardly. That conversation hasn’t started in earnest but it is coming.
Eamon McCann described them as the ‘lost tribe’ a long time ago, the article is basically a mishmash / regurgitation of others analysis / ideas, didn’t see anything original in it, I can see why southerners with a casual interest in north would like it.
What an absolutely fine example of a great article, thanks for the read, I shall be sharing this with colleagues that I have been trying to explain the situation to..
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