Hurricane Helene’s devastation is shining a spotlight on former President Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance’s (R-Ohio) skepticism of well-established climate science.
Trump this week claimed that the planet has “actually gotten a little bit cooler lately.” Vance, meanwhile, prefaced an answer related to the link between carbon emissions and climate change during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate with, “Let’s just say that’s true.”
The statements, in the wake of the extreme weather disaster, highlight the gulf between the parties on the issue as the November election approaches and the storm’s impact looms particularly large in the potentially key swing states of Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.
Climate change “is a highly motivating factor for young voters in this election,” said North Carolina Democratic strategist Morgan Jackson, “and when you see folks like Donald Trump and JD Vance, it is one of the reasons that I think young voters are going to be more motivated to turn out, because the top issue they care about and they worry about Republicans … call a hoax.”
Florida-based Republican strategist Ford O’Connell, however, said that even in hard-hit states, he does not believe climate change will be a top issue in the presidential race.
“This is just not a top-10 issue this cycle,” O’Connell said. “What people in North Carolina and Virginia are pissed off about is the price of groceries and the price of gas.”
Hurricane Helene ravaged the southeastern U.S. this week, killing at least 175 people and wreaking havoc in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
The hurricane and its aftermath are underscoring the dangerous impact of climate change, which is making storms like Helene more intense and also allowing them to intensify faster. Helene went from a Category 1 storm to a Category 4 in less than a day before making landfall in Florida.
Nevertheless, in the wake of the storm both Trump and Vance have made statements that were at least skeptical of climate change and the scientific consensus on what’s driving it.
“They call it now ‘climate change’ because ‘global warming’ wasn’t working because the planet’s actually gotten a little bit cooler recently,” Trump said during a campaign stop in Milwaukee on Tuesday.
Last year was the hottest ever recorded. The 10 hottest years in the 174-year record all occurred in the last decade.
Trump also repeated his false claim that oceans would rise by a fraction of an inch over the next 400 years. Over the next 30 years, sea levels along U.S. coastlines are expected to rise by between 10 and 12 inches, according to a 2022 federal report. By the year 2100, sea levels are expected to be between 2 and 7 feet higher than they were in 2000.
Vance expressed skepticism about climate science the same evening during his debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate.
With Hurricane Helene at the front of Americans’ minds, climate change was the second policy issue asked about by the debate moderators.
In his remarks, Vance said he would only accept the science behind the issue for argument’s sake.
“One of the things that I’ve noticed some of our Democratic friends talking a lot about is a concern about carbon emissions — this idea that carbon emissions drive all the climate change,” Vance said.
“Let’s just say that’s true, just for the sake of argument, so we’re not arguing about weird science. Let’s just say that’s true,” he continued.
There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring and is primarily being driven by human activity — largely carbon emissions stemming from the burning of fossil fuels.
When asked by moderator Norah O’Donnell, Vance also did not say whether he agreed with Trump’s infamous false claim that climate change is a “hoax.”
The comments mark a stark contrast from the Democratic ticket and current administration.
Vice President Harris has called climate change an “existential threat,” and Walz said in his response to the question on the issue during Tuesday’s debate that “climate change is real. Reducing our impact is absolutely critical.”
President Biden, meanwhile, issued a strong criticism of climate denialism Wednesday.
“No one can deny the impact of [the] climate crisis anymore. At least I hope they don’t, they must be brain-dead if they do. Scientists report that with warming oceans powering more intense rains, storms like Helene are getting stronger and stronger. They’re not going to get less, they’re going to get stronger,” he said.
Pete Maysmith, senior vice president of campaigns at the League of Conservation Voters, said that the election comes with significant stakes for climate change given the stark differences in the candidates’ positions.
“On one side, we’ve got a candidate … who will basically say to Big Oil, ‘We’ll do whatever you want. Climate change isn’t real,’” said Maysmith.
“And you’ve got on the other side candidates who through their actions and through their campaign words have said, ‘This is a top priority,'” he added.
Maysmith said his organization expects to highlight Trump’s climate denial on the campaign trail.
“We’ve already put out a couple of ads in partnership with other allies,” he said. “I can say that we’ll have more coming.”
Jackson, the Democratic strategist, said that ultimately “Republicans are out of step with voters on this.”
“Because Republicans have had such a war on science for so long, they just refuse to admit what voters see every day in reality, which is: This is hurting our state economically, it’s killing our agriculture industry … and look at the loss of life in western North Carolina,” Jackson said.
Asked about why Trump and Vance don’t acknowledge climate science, the Trump campaign directed The Hill to Vance’s remarks during the debate, particularly highlighting his comment that “We want the environment to be cleaner and safer.”
O’Connell, the Republican strategist, said “if climate change is your primary focus before the hurricane, you were already voting Democrat.”
He said how officials respond to the storm is likely to be much more important than their longer-term climate policies, saying that recovery is “outweighing any thoughts about climate change or root causes of extreme weather.”
Alex Gangitano contributed.