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In a Truth Social post last week, President Donald Trump questioned the existence of the climate crisis, citing extreme cold weather that was set to hit the country over the weekend.
“Record Cold Wave expected to hit 40 States. Rarely seen anything like it before,” Trump said, before delving into his skepticism.
“Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain — WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???” he asked.
Trump has frequently peddled disinformation about the climate crisis over the years, and has dismantled a wide range of climate protections while in office. He has, for example, expanded non-renewable energy production in the U.S., including oil and coal, and early in his second term (as he did in his first), he withdrew the U.S. from the international Paris Climate Agreement.
Climate scientists have noted that Trump’s claims on the storm are not based in science, as warmer global temperatures — especially those in the Arctic — can actually result in weather phenomena like the polar vortex.
“Big waves like this are more common when the Arctic is unusually warm, and it’s near record-warm right now,” Jennifer Francis, an atmospheric scientist and senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, told Inside Climate News.
Indeed, when warmer air currents move into the Arctic, it pushes the cold air that...
In the aftermath of the recent fatal ICE shooting of Alex Pretti, Republican Congressman Byron Donalds blamed the killing on so-called “paid agitators,” despite there being no such evidence that p...