The Trump Musk Conversation On Climate Change Is Frighteningly Ignorant

The man who aspires to be the leader of the United States, and the man who is trying to impersonate Iron Man got together on X, the social media site, for a chat last week. Donald Trump, the former President, and Elon Musk, the current owner of X, Tesla, SpaceX and other businesses, expressed opinion as fact when talking about global warming and rising sea levels.

Trump had previously called global warming a hoax. Musk has wanted to save humanity from extinction by sending colonists to Mars should a catastrophe on Earth occur to ensure the continuation of our species.

Musk created the Tesla brand and popularized electric vehicles because of an earlier concern that internal combustion engines burning fossil fuels were contributing to environmental pollution and climate change. It seems, however, that he has modified his position on our current global addiction to fossil fuels.

Trump, on the other hand, talks about many subjects with little knowledge about any of them. In a 2-hour conversation, the two praised each other and denigrated Trump’s Democratic opponents. Somewhere between 878,000 and 1 million witnessed the conversation at the beginning with many millions more joining as the two rambled on. Climate change and sea level rise weren’t front of mind in their friend-to-friend reveal that contained more mutual admiration statements than facts.

I was interested in what these two brainiacs were going to say about energy and climate change. These subjects came up several times throughout.

Musk Statements About Climate Change Worth Noting

At the 1:06:12 mark, Musk began the climate change discussion noting that his views on the subject and the the oil and gas industry are “probably different from what most people would assume.” He went on to bring up the following with my comments and observations appearing after the fact in [square brackets].

1. The only reason we should reduce fossil fuel use is that we need to conserve it or we will run out. [We will not run out of coal, oil and gas in the face of current demand levels for at least a century based on Energy Institute sources.]
2. If we stop using oil and gas now we will starve and our economies will collapse. [I don’t know about global starvation as a consequence of shutting off the oil and natural gas flow. I assume Musk is looking at the use of fossil fuels to make fertilizers. Regarding a global economic collapse, this would likely occur if we were to go cold turkey which no environmental policymakers suggest as possible for the short term.]
3. We don’t need to rush…We still have quite a bit of time before climate change becomes an existential problem. [Bill McKibben, the cofounder of 350.org describes comments like this as representing “entirely new levels of stupidity.” Climate change already for many has become an existential problem. Extreme weather events are on the rise. Heatwaves have become more intense. The increase in droughts and wildfires has given birth to a new term called “fire season.”]
4. We don’t need to stop farmers from farming or prevent people from eating steaks. [No one combatting climate change wants farmers to stop farming. As for eating steaks, there are better reasons to reduce red meat consumption than pointing to climate change. There are human health risks to a diet heavily dependent on steak. High cholesterol from such diets is among the leading causes of cardiovascular disease and stroke.]
5. The main danger is allowing carbon dioxide (CO2) to build up in the atmosphere because at some point it will become difficult to breathe which would be when the gas reaches 1,000 parts per million (ppm) leading to societal collapse. [Current levels of atmospheric CO2 are around 420 ppm. Some indoor environments today reach CO2 levels of 1,000 ppm because of poor ventilation. A 2019 article published in the Nature Sustainability journal suggests a much higher number, closer to 5,000 ppm before CO2 could pose a direct risk to human health.] 

Trump Statements About Climate Change Worth Noting

Trump had called climate change a hoax in the past and probably still thinks that. As President, he pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he suggested shining a light inside the body or drinking bleach to kill the virus. Those who took the latter advice ended up very sick or in the hospital.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, therefore, that Trump continues to make statements that display his lack of knowledge. In all fairness to him, he acknowledges that he is out of his depth on subjects like energy, climate change and sea level rise stating “That’s not my world.” Then he goes on and comments on them anyway coming up with some real humdingers:

1. At the 42:19 mark, Trump when talking about North Korea and the nuclear threat makes the following comment: “The biggest threat is not global warming, where the ocean’s going to rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 400 years and you’ll have more oceanfront property.” [How many observations and “facts” expressed can be so wrong in just one sentence? Trump’s eighth-of-an-inch figure is pulled out of a hat. U.S. agencies like NASA have stated that global mean sea levels have risen 10.1 centimetres (3.98 inches) since 1992. Another U.S. agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is projecting sea levels along U.S. coastlines to rise, on average, 0.25 – 0.30 metres (10 to 12 inches in the next 30 years, as much as the rise measured from 1920  to 2020. Then the assertion that rising sea level is good because it means more oceanfront property defies basic geometry. If sea levels rise the shores of the continental U.S. don’t get larger, and those displaced have to find new places to live. Instead of more oceanfront, there is likely to be less. When I heard this comment, I couldn’t help but think back to the “Superman” movie and the villain Lex Luthor who steals nuclear missiles and directs one to strike the San Andreas Fault, splitting California from the continental U.S. Why? Because Luthor owns cheap desert property in Arizona that he wants to turn into oceanfront when California slips away into the Pacific.]
2. At the 01:13:38 time in the conversation, Trump states: “The one thing that I don’t understand is that people talk about global warming or they talk about climate change, but they never talk about nuclear warming.” [Trump goes on to equate nuclear warming with nuclear power and describes the countries that are getting it as “very dangerous.” Trump describes nuclear power as a “big problem,” not because it is used in the United States, but because China is building nuclear power plants and likely will surpass the U.S. in the technology. Trump doesn’t understand the difference between nuclear weapons, and nuclear power suggesting a level of basic ignorance and incompetence on energy issues. He also doesn’t understand the nature of nuclear fuels used in nuclear power plants nor how they compare to coal-fired power in terms of their environmental impacts. As for the term, nuclear warming, it’s just another sample of his lack of grasp of the climate change file. When Musk interjects to educate Trump pointing to nuclear as “actually way better” than electricity from coal, he is too late with too little to make a difference to Trump’s speechifying and opinions.] 

I freely admit that my focus on the Trump-Musk conversation was climate change, energy and sea level rise. In that, I found enough to confound me. The rest of the conversation, if you have had the chance to listen to it or read the transcript, doesn’t do either of these two men any more favours. I have known Trump to be a confabulist and liar, but what I didn’t know is how far down the rabbit hole Musk has descended in recent months. The latter was both saddening and a disappointment.