Donald Trump Rambles Incoherently About ‘Nuclear Warming’ – Which Doesn’t Exist
For the first time since he was arraigned earlier this month, Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Fox
Tristan Green
For the first time since he was arraigned earlier this month, Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Carlson has privately said that he loathes Trump, but he appeared to be hanging on every word from the former POTUS as they covered a variety of topics from Putin and Ukraine to World War II weapons, domestic issues and more.
But one bizarre exchange has people scratching their heads – and laughing.
Donald Trump Rambles About Nuclear Warming
Trump: “I’m an environmentalist also, in my own way, because I’ve done a good job with the environment. But nobody talks about nuclear.” pic.twitter.com/Dr0egpr34L
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 12, 2023
Global warming is a serious threat to the planet.
Not only will a rapidly warming planet lead to higher sea levels, more extreme storm systems and heavier bouts of drought, but it will also threaten the very slim temperature margin in which many of our crops are grown.
Less water in vulnerable places, more water in other vulnerable places and poorly growing crops are all part of the human crisis to come if carbon emissions aren’t reigned in.
But Trump had a bizarre theory that he floated while speaking with Carlson, and it made about as much sense as windmill cancer – another of his pet concepts from days past.
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Trump told Carlson, “When I listen to people talk about global warming, that the ocean will rise in the next 300 years by 1/8th of an inch, and they talk about this is our problem, our real problem is nuclear warming. No one even talks about it.”
He continues, “The environmentalist talk about all this nonsense in many cases, look I’m an environmentalist also I guess in my own way, because I’ve done a good job with the environment. But nobody talks about nuclear. The problem, the problem, the biggest problem we have in the whole world, it’s not global warming. It’s nuclear warming.”
While Carlson and Trump may currently be playing nice, Carlson’s face at the end of Trump’s bizarre statement surely reflects the bafflement of everyone watching.
There’s a reason no one talks about nuclear warming: it doesn’t exist.
Trump’s Nuclear Warming Lies
‘From the man who brought you windmill cancer’: Critics baffled by Trump’s ‘nuclear warming’ threathttps://t.co/qWOUd9B96I
— Raw Story (@RawStory) April 12, 2023
Like windmill cancer, like so many other scientific “ideas” Trump has floated in the past (bleach into the veins, anyone?), nuclear warming is some bizarre mix of other ideas that Trump has crammed into one.
While nuclear weapons do create intense amounts of heat when they detonate, and irradiate a large swath of area in the aftermath that leaves the land hot and unlivable for a time, the heat passes. The real risk from the overuse of nuclear weapons is actually nuclear winter, not nuclear warming.
Nuclear winter is defined by Oxford as “a period of abnormal cold and darkness predicted to follow a nuclear war, caused by a layer of smoke and dust in the atmosphere blocking the sun’s rays.”
And there are other false assertions in Trump’s short statement as well.
For instance, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a report that explains, “Sea level along the U.S. coastline is projected to rise, on average, 10 – 12 inches (0.25 – 0.30 meters) in the next 30 years (2020 – 2050), which will be as much as the rise measured over the last 100 years (1920 – 2020).”
That’s significantly more than 1/8th of an inch in 300 years.
And the greatest risk from global warming isn’t just the sea level rise. Changes in water temperature and jet stream patterns can wreak devastation on ocean life and cause unpredictable weather patterns reflected in more extreme hurricane seasons, longer and more devastating droughts, and more dangerous storms.
All in all, Trump’s run up to 2024 seems to be shaking down to be just as filled with lies and untruths as his prior two runs. But this time, the world is in a far more vulnerable state.
The problem with statements like what Trump said to Carlson is that nuclear proliferation – the escalating use of nuclear weapons – is a serious threat to the world. But twisting it into a bizarre environmental theory that doesn’t even exist muddies the water and makes it difficult to discuss the real issues at hand.