The newly appointed legislator believes the word is getting greener thanks to climate change, while acknowledging it is a problem.
Last month, Chris Wright told his Senate confirmation hearing that he agreed fossil fuels are the main contributor to emissions and global warming. Describing climate change as ‘a global challenge we need to solve’, he successfully managed to secure the role at the top of the US energy network.
However, critics have since been left aghast at subsequent statements, including that climate change is one of life’s many ‘trade-offs’ in an interview with Fox Business last week. He also went on to try and present the planet as in a far healthier state than it currently is, including references to increased green space.
‘A warmer planet with more CO2 is better for growing plants. The world has been getting greener for decades—[there is] 14% more greenery around the planet today than there was 40 years ago. And we have far more people die of the cold than die of the heat.
So everything has a trade-off, but yeah. There’s pluses to global warming as well as negatives,’ said Wright. ‘So everything has a trade-off, but yeah. There’s pluses to global warming as well as negatives.’
Analysts have since pointed out several flaws with the claim. These include the idea that more carbon dioxide is better for plants, which doesn’t take into consideration other changes in the atmospheric makeup of Earth which are tied to climate change and detrimental to flora. Depleted soil nutrients, weather instability and the growing water crisis were also overlooked.
Meanwhile, the idea that the world is greener today than it was 40 years ago is similarly misleading. Simply put, ‘greener’ does not mean ‘better’. The colour green is becoming more visible across the world on land and in the ocean, leaving scientists guessing as to the cause. Many now believe CO2 could be a catalyst, although intensive tree planting policies in Asia are also adding to the transformation.
Wright ended by dismissing the idea of climate change as the world’s biggest challenge, claiming ‘the bottom line is, it’s just nowhere near the world’s biggest problem today. Not even close.’
While the Trump administration’s attempts to alleviate and belittle the scientific community’s concerns about the environment comes as no surprise – the 47th US President campaigned on this stance – since taking office we have seen a number of examples where White House rhetoric is emboldening other governments to adopt similar attitudes to key issues such as climate, gender and equality.
Image: Guillaume de Germain / Unsplash
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