UN scientist ignores quip from Trump on warming

A top UN scientist has shrugged off an online quip from US president Donald Trump that questioned global warming, saying an American government report will show the “fundamental impacts of climate change on the US continent”.

Pavel Kabat, the chief scientist at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), said environmentally minded efforts by the state of California, in parts of the financial sector, among grassroots activists and others will have more of an impact to help the fight against climate change than “political disturbance” and “discourse” will impede it.

Mr Kabat was speaking to present WMO’S latest greenhouse gas bulletin, which said levels in the atmosphere climbed to a record last year.

His comments came just hours after Mr Trump, who once called global warming a “hoax”, posted on Twitter: “Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS – Whatever happened to Global Warming?”