Experts blast Trump climate report, giant iceberg starts vanishing

WASHINGTON/PARIS: A report commissioned by the Trump administration that disputes the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change mimics tactics once used by the tobacco industry to manufacture doubt, leading US experts said Tuesday.

On the other hand, a separate development in the South Atlantic Ocean justified the US experts’ criticism, a colossal iceberg ranked among the oldest and largest ever recorded is finally crumbling apart in warmer waters, and could disappear within weeks as nearly 40 years after breaking off Antarctica.

MOCKERY OF SCIENCE

In a sweeping 440-page rebuttal, 85 scientists accused the government of relying on a small group of handpicked contrarians who drew on discredited research, misrepresented evidence, and bypassed the peer review process to reach pre-determined conclusions.

The Trump administration’s 150-page report was published on the Department of Energy’s website in late July to support the administration’s proposal to overturn the 2009 “Endangerment Finding” — a bedrock determination that underpins much of the federal government’s authority to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

“This report makes a mockery of science,” Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University and one of the co-authors, wrote in a statement.

“It relies on ideas that were rejected long ago, supported by misrepresentations of the body of scientific knowledge, omissions of important facts, arm waving, anecdotes, and confirmation bias. This report makes it clear DOE has no interest in engaging with the scientific community.”

FOSSIL FUEL AGENDA

Entitled “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the US Climate,” the DOE document made sweeping claims: that extreme weather events linked to human-caused emissions were not increasing, US temperatures were not rising, and that higher carbon dioxide levels would benefit agricultural productivity.

The rebuttal marshals experts from multiple disciplines to challenge each assertion.

“Contrary to the authors’ claims, the human-induced global warming signal is clearly discernible in all-time high and low temperature records over the continental United States and throughout the world,” scientists wrote in one example.

On agriculture, the rebuttal notes that while elevated carbon dioxide can sometimes spur greater yields in isolation, rising heat and shifting rainfall patterns are expected to cause overall declines.

The DOE report also downplays the threat of ocean acidification, stating that “life in the oceans evolved when the oceans were mildly acidic” billions of years ago.

But according to the rebuttal, this is “irrelevant for evaluating whether current or near-future conditions are suitable for modern ecosystems to continue,” since complex multi-cellular life had not evolved at the time.

Since returning to office in January, President Donald Trump has gone far beyond the pro-fossil fuel agenda of his first term.

Republicans recently passed legislation titled the “Big Beautiful Bill” which gutted clean energy tax credits established under former president Joe Biden, while opening ecologically sensitive areas to expanded fossil fuel development.

Trump has also withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate and is pressing America’s fossil fuel agenda abroad — requiring the EU in its trade deal to buy more US liquefied natural gas and pressuring the World Bank to stop prioritizing climate change.

THE SIZE OF GREATER LONDON

Earlier this year, the “megaberg” known as A23a weighed a little under a trillion tonnes and was more than twice the size of Greater London, a behemoth unrivalled at the time.

The gigantic slab of frozen freshwater was so large it even briefly threatened penguin feeding grounds on a remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean, but ended up moving on.

It is now less than half its original size, but still a hefty 1,770 square kilometres (683 square miles) and 60 kilometres (37 miles) at its widest point, according to AFP analysis of satellite images by the EU earth observation monitor Copernicus.

In recent weeks, enormous chunks — some 400 square kilometres in their own right — have broken off while smaller chips, many still large enough to threaten ships, litter the sea around it.

It was “breaking up fairly dramatically” as it drifted further north, Andrew Meijers, a physical oceanographer from the British Antarctic Survey, told AFP.

“I’d say it’s very much on its way out… it’s basically rotting underneath. The water is way too warm for it to maintain. It’s constantly melting,” he said.

“I expect that to continue in the coming weeks, and expect it won’t be really identifiable within a few weeks.”

DOOMED

A23a calved from the Antarctic shelf in 1986 but quickly grounded in the Weddell Sea, remaining stuck on the ocean floor for over 30 years.

It finally escaped in 2020 and, like other giants before it, was carried along “iceberg alley” into the South Atlantic Ocean by the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

Around March, it ran aground in shallow waters off distant South Georgia island, raising fears it could disrupt large colonies of adult penguins and seals there from feeding their young.

But it dislodged in late May, and moved on.

Swinging around the island and tracking north, in recent weeks the iceberg has picked up speed, sometimes travelling up to 20 kilometres in a single day, satellite images analysed by AFP showed.

Exposed to increasingly warmer waters, and buffeted by huge waves, A23a has rapidly disintegrated.

Scientists were “surprised” how long the iceberg had kept together, said Meijers.

“Most icebergs don’t make it this far. This one’s really big so it has lasted longer and gone further than others.”

But ultimately, icebergs are “doomed” once they leave the freezing protection of Antarctica, he added.

Iceberg calving is a natural process. But scientists say the rate at which they were being lost from Antarctica is increasing, probably because of human induced climate change.