Donald Trump has seemingly defended his decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement by saying that scientists “can’t even get the weather report right, so how come they think they can get that right” when discussing the issue of climate change
The comment was overheard at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia after the President played a round of golf.
He and his officials, including White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and head of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt, have refused to answer the simple question of whether Mr Trump believes in climate change or not.
The overheard comment - reported by Politico - may have answered that.
Mr Trump withdrew the US from the global agreement signed by nearly 200 countries in an effort to limit carbon emissions and address adapting to an already changing climate.
His own Secretary of State Rex Tillerson - a former Exxon Mobil CEO - and Secretary of Defence James Mattis had both urged the President to keep the US in the agreement.
The Pentagon actually does quite a bit of work to address the changing climate around the world preparing military bases for rising sea levels and operations surrounding natural disasters.
Mr Pruitt said the decision to take the US out of the Paris accord was “not about whether climate change is occurring or not” but the impact on the US economy.
Mr Trump repeatedly claimed it put the US economy and American workers at a “disadvantage” when there are numerous studies showing that implementing renewable energy and emissions reduction measures actually help the economy and create new “green” jobs.
In fact, a recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that the world’s economies could boost economic growth by nearly three per cent by 2021 if they institute policies that would lower greenhouse gas emissions. By 2050 that growth could reach up to five per cent.
Several business leaders, including the directors of multi-billion dollar pension funds in the US and the CEO of Shell, had urged Mr Trump to stay in the Paris Agreement as well.
