Chris Wright, Trump's energy secretary pick, thinks climate change could be a good thing

Over the years, the arguments against meaningful action on climate change have evolved from questioning the science to arguing that rising temperatures may not be caused by human activity. Now president-elect Donald Trump pushes it in a whole new direction: climate change is actually a good thing.

Trump, who thought sea level rise could cause more beachfront propertyrecently announced that his choice for energy secretary was Chris Wright, CEO of a major oil company who downplayed the risks of rising global temperatures and argued that climate change could actually be good for the world.

These feelings were revealed this weekend in an article in the Wall Street Journal which contained various comments made by Wright to the far-right platform PragerU, whose founder bragged about wanting “indoctrinate” American children with his politics.

According to the WSJ:

Responsible for fracking, Wright acknowledges that burning fossil fuels contributes to rising temperatures. But it also says climate change is making the planet greener by increasing plant growth, boosting agricultural productivity and likely reducing the number of annual temperature-related deaths. “There are probably almost as many positive changes as negative changes,” he told the conservative nonprofit media outlet PragerU last year, referring to climate change. “Is this a crisis, is this the greatest global challenge or a great threat to the next generation? No.”

For the record, the things Wright sees as positive when it comes to increasing atmospheric carbon – like increased plant growth and increased “agricultural productivity” – do not always occur under climate change scenarios, and when they happen, they do not always constitute positive developments. . (Read more about this here And here).

And contrary to Wright’s claims about temperature-related deaths, the Environmental Protection Agency reported this year that “the dramatic increase in heat-related deaths is closely associated with the occurrence of hot temperatures and heat waves.”

We know there are many other catastrophic scenarios related to climate change. circumstances that literally kill people and destroy property and environments. Indeed, these are great threats to all generations who currently live on earth and all those who wish to do so in the future.

Leading scientists from around the world have concluded that over several decades, an average increase in global temperature above 1.5 degrees C Elsius (2.7 degrees F) could produce “irreversible” changes with “dangerous impacts for humanity”.“But Wright wants us all to see climate change through rose-colored glasses.

“A little warmer is not a threat,” he said in the resurfaced PragerU interview. “If we were 5, 7, 8, 10 degrees (Celsius) warmer, that would cause significant changes to the planet.”

This sequence of numbers is particularly bizarre. Scientists believe the world is on track to at least 3 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial times, causing everything from destructive heat waves, wildfires and droughts to an ice-free Arctic Ocean to evolution of insect-borne diseases. Six degrees are considered one apocalyptic scenariowith entire sections of the Earth now uninhabitable. But Wright starts there, jumping up to an unimaginable 10 degrees of warming, which might be a problem in his casual calculation.

No one should be surprised that Trump keeps his promise. let the leaders of the big oil companies live their wildest dreams if they donated money to his campaign. But claiming that climate change is a good thing and that the Earth could warm a few more degrees is a new low, even by our already lowered standards.