Trump energy chief says there are upsides to ecological collapse

Seven Democrats voted to confirm this man. Seven!

During his Senate confirmation hearing last month, Chris Wright put on a moderate face.

To support his bid to lead the Department of Energy, Wright—the CEO of fracking company Liberty Energy—assured senators that he understands fossil fuels are the primary cause of climate change. He also said he takes the problem seriously. “Climate change is a global challenge that we need to solve,” he said.

The statements were apparently enough to earn Wright the votes of seven Democrats who campaigned on climate action: Maggie Hassan, Jeanne Shaheen, John Hickenlooper, Michael Bennett, Ben Ray Luján, Martin Heinrich, and Ruben Gallego. “He believes in science,” Hickenlooper said in a statement explaining his vote.

But now that Wright’s secured the job, the mask is quickly slipping off.

”There’s pluses to global warming”

In an interview on Fox Business on Wednesday, the new Energy Secretary said there are upsides to raising the Earth’s temperature to levels not witnessed since before the last ice age.

“Everything in life has trade-offs,” he began:

A warmer planet with more CO2 is better for growing plants. The world has been getting greener for decades—[there’s] 14 percent more greenery around the planet today than there was 40 years ago. And we have far more people die of the cold than die of the heat.

So everything has a trade-off, but yeah. There’s pluses to global warming as well as negatives.

It was almost like listening to Richard Sackler tell the world there are pluses to opioid withdrawal as well as minuses. (To make matters worse, The Department of Energy posted the video on its official YouTube channel).

But in addition to being morally repugnant, Wright’s statements were just wrong. Let’s take each point one by one.

• “A warmer planet with more CO2 is better for growing plants.” Setting aside the complex dynamics of plant growth, in general, higher concentrations of CO2 are only better for plants if you maintain all other environmental factors, like soil nutrients, weather stability, and water availability. And guess what climate change is screwing up? Soil nutrients, weather stability, and water availability. (Read more here and here)
  

• “The world has been getting greener for decades—[there’s] 14 percent more greenery around the planet today than there was 40 years ago.” Yes, but “greener” in this definition does not mean “more biodiverse” or “more healthy” or even necessarily “better.” It literally just means the world has more of the color green, both on land and in the ocean. This can be good, but it can also be bad, depending on where the green is and why it’s there. Scientists think some greening might be because of CO2, but they’re not sure how much. They do know at least a third is because of intense tree-planting and agricultural policy in China and India. (Read more here).
  

• “We have far more people die of the cold than die of the heat.” That’s currently true, but climate change doesn’t just cause death by heat. It causes death by wildfire, floods, tropical storms, vector-borne disease, infectious disease, water-related illness, rising sea levels, malnutrition, and conflict. Also, peer-reviewed research published last month showed that without extreme mitigation and adaptation efforts, the rise in heat deaths will substantially outweigh the decrease in cold deaths over time. (Read more here)
  

Climate scientists I spoke to also agreed that Wright’s statements were misleading. “This is just a regurgitation of disinformative talking points,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s total antiscientific nonsense in service of a fossil fuel industry-driven administrative agenda.”

But for Wright, these three made-up “plus sides” were enough to dismiss the threat of climate change completely. “The bottom line is, it’s just nowhere near the world’s biggest problem today,” Wright said. “Not even close.”

Perhaps he’s right. Sure, there are downsides to the climate track we’re currently on: Nearly all the world’s coral reefs dying; widespread population displacement from extreme weather and rising seas; worldwide food production dropping by as much as half; and hundreds of thousands of animal and plant species facing extinction, to name just a few.

But hey, at least the ocean will look greener from space, and Chris Wright will be rich. Everything in life has trade-offs!

Other stories I’m following:

• Earlier this week, Chris Wright suggested that climate action is just a ploy to “grow government power.” Speaking at a conference full of oil executives and well-known climate deniers, the new Department of Energy secretary this week vowed to “get out of the way” of coal, oil and gas development; called the UK’s 2050 net zero target “a sinister goal” that would “impoverish” people; and downplayed the threat from extreme weather, DeSmog reports.
  

• Did I mention that seven Democratic Senators voted for this man? I’m particularly surprised by New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich, who literally brags in his X profile about being “one-third of the Three Climateers.”
  

• Earthjustice has filed “the first environmental lawsuit against the Trump administration.” The environmental law firm sued “to stop the Trump administration from opening up vast new areas to offshore oil and gas drilling,” the New York Times reports. “The suit is an opening shot in what is likely to be a series of cases aimed at thwarting the White House’s push for what it calls “energy dominance” by pivoting toward fossil fuels and away from cleaner energy sources like solar and wind.
  

• Minnesota’s lawsuit seeking to hold Big Oil financially responsible for climate change is moving forward. A state judge denied a motion seeking to dismiss Minnesota’s 2020 lawsuit accusing Exxon, the American Petroleum Institute, and Koch Industries of running a “campaign of deception” to mislead consumers about climate change.
  

• “Sustainable” investors are moving away from talking about climate change. “I’ve given up on anyone ever caring about that,” said Jabusch, investment chief of Green Alpha Investments, which manages about $300 million.

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