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silence7@slrpnk.net

We Fact Checked Everything Trump Has Said About Climate Change Since 2021 (heatmap.news)

submitted 10 months ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/climate@slrpnk.net

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[–] Deebster@programming.dev 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Interesting/useful bits:

The term “climate change” was initially popularized by Republicans under G.W. Bush as they wanted a softer term that sounded less “frightening”. It's a better term though, because it covers non-temperature effects like ocean acidification.
A warmer atmosphere means more water can be held in the air, which leads to more rain (often more extreme) but also more droughts as warmer air can remove more water from an area.
The fact that the climate has (slowly) changed in the past doesn't mean we aren't causing change now. The faulty logic is akin to People have died of cancer in the past; therefore, cigarettes don’t cause cancer now.
NOAA projects 3.5 feet to 7 feet sea-level rise along America’s coastlines by 2100.
Unsurprisingly, windmills aren't driving whales “a little batty”. Also, wind farms are responsible for just 0.03% of all human-related bird deaths in the U.S. and onshore wind is one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity.
The primary reason the US Army wants to electrify its fighting vehicles is to reduce wartime casualties (no need for refuelling missions and electric is stealthier due to being quieter and cooler).

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 4 points 10 months ago

That's a pretty good summary.

A couple more details:

"Global warming" and "climate change" had both been used to describe the same phenomenon of temperature increases at similar rates well before the Republican memo advocating for choosing only one:

And once the memo came out, and people ridiculed the Republicans for it, they had talk-radio hosts claim the Democrats were responsible for a name change for the next decade or so, causing much public confusion.

[–] jadero@slrpnk.net 3 points 10 months ago

That NOAA projection made me question what "sea level" even means if "sea level rise" can vary so much regionally. The extreme high end of the range (Gulf coast) is 18". The extreme low end (Carribean) is 6": 12" difference over about 2500 miles.

I did a shallow dive into sea level and learned that a variety of factors go into the calculation of sea level. Those factors have enough regional variability to mean that sea level is, in fact, a regional phenomenon.

The best explanation I found comes from NASA: https://climate.nasa.gov/explore/ask-nasa-climate/2990/sea-level-101-what-determines-the-level-of-the-sea/