Trump's Piers Morgan Interview Pushes the Same Climate Denial Backed by his Mercer Family Benefactors

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President Donald Trump loves to accuseย his detractors of producingย โ€œfake newsโ€ as a way to deflect from his own distortions andย misrepresentations.

But in an interview screened in the UK in recent hours, Trumpโ€™s tired attack on climate science โ€” itself a demonstrable twisting of the truth โ€” was the epitome of the actualย fakery pushed by climate science denial groups and conservative mediaย outlets.

And Trumpโ€™s continued disregard for the authoritative positions of climate scientists and scientific institutions and academies across the globe echoed the platforms of groups supported by one of his key financial backers โ€” the Mercer family.

Trump was interviewed by โ€œgood friendโ€ and former British tabloid newspaper editor and talkshow host Piers Morgan for ITV.

Headlines soon appearedย stating Trump had made a dramatic reversal in his position on the United Nations Paris climateย agreement.

โ€œWould I go back in? Yeah, Iโ€™d go back in,โ€ said Trump, after repeating claims that the pact was a โ€œhorrible dealโ€ for the U.S.

Morgan appeared to think this was news, tweeting an โ€œexclusive โ€œ that in the interview, Trump โ€œreveals possible U-turn on Paris Accord climate changeย agreement.โ€

According to the Daily Express and that newspaperโ€™s errant shift key, this was a โ€œHUGE U-TURNโ€ forย Trump.

But this is no exclusive, and noย U-turn.

Repeating Climateย Myths

Trumpโ€™s position, as โ€œrevealedโ€ to Morgan, is the same position the president outlined when announcing his withdrawal from the Paris agreement in Juneย 2017.

Hereโ€™s what Trump said then:

โ€œTherefore, in order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord โ€” (applause) โ€” thank you, thank you โ€” but begin negotiations to reenter either the Paris Accord or a really entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers. So weโ€™re getting out. But we will start to negotiate, and we will see if we can make a deal thatโ€™sย fair.โ€

Trump also repeated a tired myth that the term โ€œclimate changeโ€ was now being used because the world was not warming (which it clearlyย is).

โ€œThere is a cooling, and thereโ€™s a heating. I mean, look, it used to not be climate change, it used to be global warming. That wasnโ€™t working too well because it was getting too cold all over the place,โ€ saidย Trump.

As Skeptical Science points out, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was set up in 1988.ย The ongoing academic journal โ€œClimatic Changeโ€ has been publishing sinceย 1977.

In fact, one major promoter of the use of the term โ€œclimate changeโ€ ahead of the term โ€œglobal warmingโ€ was Frank Luntz โ€” the influential George W. Bushย pollster.

In a 2001 report to Republican candidates, Luntz advised the phrase โ€œglobal warmingโ€ should be replaced with the โ€œless frighteningโ€ term โ€œclimateย change.โ€

In what was the most egregious misstatement of the Piers Morgan interview, Trump claimed the polar ice caps were now โ€œat a recordย level.โ€

In fact, latest data from Trumpโ€™s own government shows that levels of sea ice in the Arctic are around record low levels since satellite observations started inย 1979.

Levels of sea ice in Antarctica areย also at below-average levels. Climate scientists have been expressing serious concerns for the state of the melting ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica, which could push sea levels up by severalย meters.

Mercers Expand Climate Denialย Funding

Trumpโ€™s climate science denial perfectly mirrors the myths perpetrated by the groups funded by one of the presidentโ€™s key benefactors โ€” the hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer.

As DeSmog has reported, Mercerย and his daughter Rebekahย have been spending millions on climate science denial groups in recentย years.

Latest tax filings by the Mercer Family Foundation show that in 2016, the Mercers extended their support for climate science denialย groups.

As well as continuing to support the notorious Heartland Institute, the Mercer family is now also backing the CO2 Coalition and the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change.

The CO2 Coalition wants the public to think that adding extra CO2 to the atmosphere will only be good for theย planet.

CO2 Coalition director Professor Will Happer, a retired Princeton physicist, has compared what he describes as the โ€œdemonizationโ€ of carbon dioxide to the โ€œdemonization of poor Jewsย underย Hitler.โ€

DeSmog has reported that the coalition has been funding research to undermine concerns about rising sea levels on Pacificย islands.

The CO2ย Coalition includesย Kathleen Hartnett Whiteย as a member. White is Trumpโ€™s nominee to chair the influential cross-departmental White House Council on Environmentalย Quality.

In recent days, the Mercer familyโ€™s support of the iconic American Museum of Natural History has also been called into question.

As DeSmog reported in May 2017, the Mercer family has also been supporting the New York City museum and has given Rebekah Mercer a seat on the board ofย trustees.

The museum has accepted some $3.8 million in funding from the Mercers sinceย 2013.

As the New York Times reported last week, several of the museumโ€™s staff, including curators, have joined calls for Mercer to be removed from the board, on account of her support for climate science denialย groups.

Main image: A screenshot from Donald Trump’s ITV interview with Piersย Morgan.

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