Jan 2, 2014
On this day, eight years ago, Donald Trump tweeted that global warming was a hoax. Specifically –
This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps, and our GW scientists are stuck in ice— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2014
This was neither Trump’s first or last tweet on the subject. There’s this corker from a couple of years previously:
[see this Vox collation of all the tweets]. Of course, as President, he withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement and tore up environmental regulations, rendering the already weak Environmental Protection Agency even more toothless.
We can see this as a morality tale of a wicked man or we can take an historical and sociological view. Historically, we could look at the 1991 campaign especially aimed at older white men. Under the name or Information Council on the Environment (“ICE” – geddit?), as described in Ross Gelbspan’s book “The Heat is On” and elsewhere (see the climatefiles too!)
Sociologically, we could use anti-reflexivity, the concept of McCright and Dunlap developed, to explain not just Trump, but Trump’s enduring popularity with people who pine for an imagined 1950s where straight, white men. were in charge. Women were in the kitchen, people of color were “colored” people who knew the place and Mother Nature was under the thumb.
I don’t need to tell you what happened next – you’re watching it.
Further Reading
Dunlap, R. and McCright, A. (2010) “Climate change denial: Sources, actors and strategies”
1991 Information Council on the Environment Test Denial Campaign Plan and Survey https://www.climatefiles.com/denial-groups/ice-campaign-plan/