Date: January 20th, 2019
Agency: Federal, White House
Explanation: Bias and Misrepresentation
Scientist: Climate
In a tweet on January 20, 2018, President Trump appeared to suggest that recent cold weather in the U.S. disproves the existence of climate change. The President wrote:
“Be careful and try staying in your house. Large parts of the Country are suffering from tremendous amounts of snow and near record setting cold. Amazing how big this system is. Wouldn’t be bad to have a little of that good old fashioned Global Warming right now!”
The tweet was widely criticized by climate scientists, who noted that it confuses short-term weather trends with longer-term changes in climate, with one expert noting:
‘‘One down day on the Dow Jones doesn’t mean the economy is going to trash. One cold day doesn’t suddenly mean that the general trend in global climate change is suddenly going in the opposite direction.’’
Other emphasized that more severe winter storms are, themselves, an impact of climate change.