Prince Charles tried to convince Trump that climate change exists and the president claims he “totally listened to him.”
What was meant to be a 15-minute meeting between the Prince of Wales and Trump turned into a 90-minute talk about the reality of the climate crisis, The Guardian reports.
While appearing on ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” with host Piers Morgan, the U.S. president described the meeting as Prince Charles “doing most of the talking,” but praised him for being “really into climate change” and wanting to better the planet for future generations “as opposed to a disaster.”
“I tell you what moved me is his passion for future generations. This is real, he believes that, he wants to have a world that is good for future generations and I do, too,” said Trump, whose administration recently referred to natural gas as “molecules of U.S. freedom.”
When asked by Morgan if he believes climate change exists, Trump called it “a change in the weather” that “changes both ways.”
“Don’t forget,” Trump explained to Morgan during the interview, “it used to be called global warming, that wasn’t working, then it was called climate change. Now it’s actually called extreme weather, because with extreme weather you can’t miss.”
Many publications, including The Guardian, have adopted the phrase “climate crisis” to describe the current state of the planet.
Trump argued that the U.S. was “among the cleanest climates,” placing the blame on Russia, China, and India for high pollution, chiding the nations for not “doing the responsibility.”
Trump’s appearance on “Good Morning Britain” marks the third time that he and Morgan have met. The U.S. president has been criticized in the past for a lack of understanding regarding the science behind climate change. When asked about climate change during a January 2018 interview with Morgan, he said, “There is a cooling, and there’s a heating. I mean, look, it used to not be climate change, it used to be global warming. That wasn’t working too well because it was getting too cold all over the place.”
Does Trump Want to Help the Planet?
While Trump has claimed that his administration wants clean air and water, many of his actions stand in direct opposition. In June 2017, the U.S. withdrew from the Paris Agreement.
The first administrator of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), Scott Pruitt, rejected the idea of human-caused climate change, and described himself as a “leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.” When Pruitt resigned last July over an ethics scandal, he was replaced by Andrew R. Wheeler, a coal industry lobbyist and skeptic of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Last February, the Trump administration proposed a “Presidential Committee on Climate Security,” which would review federal climate research.
William Happer, the current National Security Council senior director for emerging technologies, who likened concerns over atmospheric carbon dioxide to “Nazi persecution of the Jews, the Soviet extermination of class enemies or ISIL slaughter of infidels,” is expected to advise.
According to a New York Times analysis, 84 environmental rules and regulations are on the way out under the Trump administration.
