Calgary Herald

CLIMATE CHANGE

Trump softens his stance

- MICHAEL BIESECKER

• U.S. president-elect Donald Trump appears to be softening his tone on whether climate change is real and on his stated plans to scrap the recent multinatio­nal agreement to limit carbon emissions.

In a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday with editors and reporters at The New York Times, Trump said he would “keep an open mind” about the Paris accord, which he has repeatedly said he planned to either renegotiat­e or cancel if elected.

Trump was also reported to have affirmed in the interview held two weeks after the election that human activity and global warming may be linked.

“I think there is some connectivi­ty,” he said. “Some, something. It depends on how much.”

That’s a significan­t shift from Trump’s past statements that climate change is a “hoax” perpetrate­d by the Chinese to make U.S. manufactur­ing less competitiv­e. Trump has also cited winter cold snaps as evidence that climate change is a “con job” and a “myth.”

If he doesn’ t change course, Trump would become the only head of state on the planet to deny the reams of scientific evidence that the Earth is warming, according to a Sierra Club compilatio­n of public statements by the leaders of the 195 nations recognized by the State Department.

While Trump’s climatecha­nge denial has become orthodoxy within the Republican Party, it is at odds with the overwhelmi­ng consensus of the world’s scientists. According to NASA, 97 per cent of climate scientists agree that the world is getting hotter and that man-made carbon emissions are to blame.

Ten of the warmest years in history have occurred in the past 12, with 2016 on pace to be the hottest ever recorded. Studies show the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass, while the world’s oceans have risen on average nearly seven inches in the last century.

Earlier this year, the Trump Internatio­nal Golf Links and Hotel in Ireland cited the threat of sea-level rise in a permit applicatio­n to build a three-kilometrel­ong stone wall between it and the Atlantic Ocean.

Also Tuesday, the president-elect declared that “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons; I really don’t,” and a top adviser said he had no interest in pursuing further investigat­ions against Hillary Clinton regarding her email practices as Secretary of State.

Earlier, adviser Kellyanne Conway strongly signalled to congressio­nal Republican­s that they should abandon their years of vigorous probes of Clinton’s email practices and actions at the time of the terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

“If Donald Trump can help her heal, then perhaps that’s a good thing,” she told reporters.

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