Trump shifts stance on climate change

President-elect Donald Trump appears to be softeninghis tone on whether climate change is real and on his stated plansto scrap the recent multinational agreement to limit carbonemissions.

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

Trump was also reported to have affirmed in the interview heldtwo weeks after the election that human activity and global warmingmay be linked. "I think there is some connectivity," he said."Some, something. It depends on how much."

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

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

While Trump's climate-change denial has become orthodoxy withinthe Republican Party, it is at odds with the overwhelming consensusof the world's scientists. According to NASA, 97 per cent of theclimate scientists agree that the world is getting hotter and thatman-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 theGreenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass, while theworld's oceans have risen on average nearly seveninches in the lastcentury.

Despite his public stance as a politician, there is evidence thatTrump the billionaire businessman was already hedging his bets.Earlier this year, the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel inIreland cited the threat of sea-level rise in a permit applicationto build a nearly two-mile-long stone wall between it and theAtlantic Ocean.

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