CLIMATE CHANGE/CRISIS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump, pressed on whether back-to-back deadly hurricanes have changed his views on climate change, dodged the question on Thursday [9-14-17] by contradicting past comments he made about the size of storms that have rocked Texas and Florida.
Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday after touring damage from Hurricane Irma on Florida’s west coast, said ‘we’ve had bigger storms than this’ when asked about climate change…
Scientists say rising global temperatures are likely to increase the intensity and impact of major storms. Last year was the Earth’s warmest year on record for the third year in a row, NOAA reported.
In response to this story, a White House aide pointed CNN to a recent NOAA report that found that it is ‘premature to conclude that human activities … have already had a detectable impact on Atlantic hurricane or global tropical cyclone activity.’
That same report, however, found that human activity ‘may have already caused changes’ and that global warming ‘will likely cause tropical cyclones globally to be more intense on average’ and ‘lead to an increase in the occurrence of very intense tropical cyclone(s).’ “
-Dan Merica, “Trump dismisses climate change question by contradicting himself on hurricanes,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Sept. 14, 2017 07:51pm