October 14, 2018

Donald Trump's economic advisor bashed the United Nations for over-hyping and overestimating the effects of climate change in their new report on ABC's THIS WEEK.

Larry Kudlow claims he's not a climate change denier but threw in words like "scare tactic" while claiming he wasn't using words like "scare tactic" to describe how he feels about the flashing red light that is the new United Nations report.

The NY Times writes:

The report, issued on Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders, describes a world of worsening food shortages and wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040 — a period well within the lifetime of much of the global population.

But in Kudlow's mind, we should all take a pause and keep researching the issue because it's difficult. (Transcript via ABC News)

STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to talk about climate change. We saw that new report from the U.N. saying that if action isn’t taken right now, you’re going to have irreversible damage much, much sooner in the next 20 years.

And of course it comes against the backdrop of that horrific hurricane we just saw, Hurricane Michael. You can’t tie any single weather event to climate change. But there’s little question among scientists that it’s increased in the – the probability of more intense weather events, warmer water leads to more intense weather.

Is the president going to do anything about it?

KUDLOW: Well look, we’re always studying these things. I mean you had I guess Bill Nordhaus from Yale got a Nobel Prize on his own economic work with respect to climate change.

I respect that, he’s a really brilliant guy. The issue here though is magnitudes and timing. Personally I think the U.N. study is – is over – way, way too difficult. I won’t say it’s a scare tactic, but I think they overestimate.

These models have not been very successful in the last 20 years and we have to be cognizant of the work that needs to be done. I’m not denying any climate change issues, George.

I’m just saying do we know precisely and I mean worth modeling things like how much of it is man made, how much of it is solar, how much of it is oceanic, how much of it is rain forest and other issues.

I think we’re still exploring all of that. I don’t think we should panic. I don’t think there’s a, you know, imminent catastrophe coming. But I think we should look at this in a level headed and analytic way.

Trump un-level headedly pulled the US out of the Paris Accords and in an un-analytical way gives credence to the many climate change deniers in his administration.

The time for patience and thoughts and prayers are over when it comes to global warming. Real action needs to take place, but unfortunately the U.S. is not a world leader anymore under Trump's leadership.

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