WSJ columnist Holman Jenkins Jr. seems emboldened in his climate denial since the election, penning three columns in the three short weeks since Trump’s win- the same number he wrote in total in June, July and August this year.
The latest takes aim at the New York Times for a well-reported and in-depth feature about coastal real estate and sea level rise. According to Jenkins, the idea that sea level rise will depress coastal real estate values as waters encroach on the land, as explained by the Ian Urbina’s reporting, is making “front-page climate propaganda out of a false syllogism.”
Jenkins also falsely claims “sea-level rise is a non-factor” when it comes to the impact of storm surges and tides on coastal development, calling out Superstorm Sandy specifically as an example. Which is interesting, because science shows that a full 24% of NYC’s damage from Sandy was due to the 20 warming-caused additional centimeters of sea levels, which added $2 billion in damages and increased the number of people and houses impacted by 11%.
While Urbina’s story contains multiple citations of reports and quotes from experts, Jenkins offers little aside from his own assertions and opinions.
So when Jenkins laments that he’ll still be called a denier even though his column doesn’t address the link between fossil fuels and climate change, it’s true. Denying the impacts of climate change isn’t much different from denying the causes.
Along those same lines of ignoring the unpleasant climate realities are two other WSJ opinion pieces published last week. In an editorial, the paper argues that Trump should unlock offshore oil drilling, particularly in the Arctic. And columnist Kimberly Strassel makes a similar sort of anti-regulatory argument in her column about Trump’s advisors, calling out Myron Ebell as a “whip-smart policy wonk.”
Although the Journal was cool on Trump during the election, there’s no denying that they’re warming up to him now.
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