Trump, now a presidential candidate, has argued in speeches and interviews that the risk of nuclear war is a much more important issue than climate change. He is entitled to his opinion. But he has repeatedly defended that opinion by citing imaginary statistics on the extent to which sea levels are expected to rise in the future. In a Fox interview this month, Trump echoed a claim he made in his campaign launch speech in November.
says that, along the United States coastline in particular, sea level rise is expected to average a total of 10 to 12 inches between 2020 and 2050 alone. That means expects an average increase in the US sea level that is 80 to 96 times bigger, over just 30 years, than the “1/8th of an inch” increase Trump suggested has been projected over 300 years. And
’s estimate for US sea level rise over those 30 years is 1,000 to 1,200 times bigger than the “1/100th of an inch” figure Trump cited on the podcast last week for the next 350 years. Gary Griggs, a University of California, Santa Cruz professor of earth and planetary sciences who studies sea level rise, said in an email on Friday that Trump’s claims “can only be described as totally out of touch with reality…simply untrue.” He said Trump “has no idea what he is talking about.
says the contiguous US could see a sea level increase of 7.2 feet over 2000 levels by 2100 and an increase of 13 feet over 2000 levels by 2150. Serious consequences Trump has for years dishonestly dismissed the existence and impact of climate change. In a speech at a conservative conference last year, after saying that “the oceans may rise, over the next 300 years, 1/100th of an inch,” he joked, “Giving you slightly more seafront property.