February 12, 2019: On the Topic of Climate Change, Mr. Trump Is a Fool

 

2/12/19: Nary a day goes by that the president doesn’t remind us of what a moron he is. When Sen. Amy Klobuchar announces she will run for president in 2020, the ever-alert Trump notices that she is making her announcement from an outdoor podium, amid swirling snow. This convinces him that global warming cannot be real! Because it’s snowing in Minnesota. 

In February. 

Minnesota. February. Snow

 

 

“Extreme weather bingo.” 

We have highlighted the president’s incredible idiocy on this topic before. Let’s look at accumulating evidence. We know 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record. This week scientists reported on a hole they’ve found in the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica. The hole is six miles long and 1,000 feet deep and the melting that caused it has occurred over the last three years. That hole represents a loss of 14 billion tons of ice. But the threat is many times greater. The Thwaites Glacier is the size of Florida and is retreating by 650 feet per year. If it crumbles in the next 50-100 years, which scientists fear, it could raise global sea levels by two feet all by itself. 

At the top of the world, melting Arctic ice is leading to collapse of polar bear habitat. This week, 52 bears invaded the town of Belyusha Guba, along Russia’s Siberian coast. “People are scared, afraid to leave the house…afraid to let their children go to school,” Zhigansha Musin, a local school administrator, tells reporters. “Constantly in the village are from six to 10 polar bears.” 

Scientists note that warming in the Arctic is occurring at twice the rate seen at lower latitudes. 

Citizens of Guba see polar bears in the streets. 

Trump sees snowflakes in Minnesota and gets confused.

 

Reports from The Netherlands and Australia also hint at calamity ahead. In the Netherlands a popular one-day 124-mile speedskating race has to be moved to Austria this winter. The race is held only when six inches or more of ice cover Dutch lakes and canals, creating a course that takes racers through eleven towns. Between 1909 and 1963 there were 12 years when ice was thick enough, allowing for the race to be held once every four years. Since 1963, there have been three races, one every eighteen years. So, this year, the race was moved to Austria. 

We head next to Australia. Weather conditions across the country are often harsh. But scientists are now talking about “extreme weather bingo,” a result of climate change. Swaths of the Outback have not seen rain in years, wiping out cattle raising. Coastal communities are arguing with inland towns as depleted rivers supply less and less water. When rains did come along the northern coast this year, they came in torrents. Major cities experienced record flooding. (Scientists continue to point out that warmer temperatures mean more evaporation and more moisture in the atmosphere; and when rains do come, they come in sheets not often seen before.) January was Australia’s hottest month ever, 2.9 degrees above the long-term mean. 

So, yes, on this topic (and many others), our president is a fool.