Does Trump believe in man-caused global warming? Nikki Haley provides controversial answer

Does President Donald Trump believe in human-caused climate change? That’s the question everyone is asking after CNN aired a “State of the Union” interview with U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley that seems to suggest Haley believes Trump does support the theory humans are causing global warming.

In the CNN interview, host Jake Tapper asked Haley whether she would be willing to agree that a 2012 tweet by Trump calling global warming a conspiracy “created by and for the Chinese … to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive” is “nonsense.”

The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012

Haley responded by saying the Paris agreement’s terms have disadvantaged U.S. companies and caused economic problems.

"The regulations from the Paris agreement were disadvantaging our companies," Haley said. "I knew that as a governor. The jobs were not attainable as long as we had to live under those regulations. It was not possible to meet the goals, had we attempted to do that."

Tapper later asked Haley again to comment on Trump’s 2012 tweet, calling the post “a big box of crazy.”

"President Trump believes the climate is changing and he believes pollutants are part of the equation," Haley responded. “So, that is the fact. That is where we are. That’s where it stands. He knows that it's changing and that the U.S. has to be responsible for it, and that's what we're going to do."

Haley’s comments have been the subject of much conversation, with many writers alleging the statements indicate Trump supports the theory of man-caused climate change. The Washington Examiner, for instance, included in its title of a story on the subject, “Trump believes in climate change.” The Daily Mail (U.K.) published an article with a title that read in part, “Nikki Haley claims Trump DOES believe in climate change.” The first part of the first paragraph in a CNN article promoting the interview reads, “President Donald Trump does believe in climate change and that humans have a role in it, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told CNN's Jake Tapper.”

Trump has in the past repeatedly referred to the theory as a “hoax,” so some media outlets are treating Haley’s comments as though they are revelatory. They aren’t.

The numerous news stories about Haley’s comments undoubtedly prove one thing: Most Americans, especially on the left, don’t understand what climate-change skeptics actually believe, despite countless books, studies, lectures, speeches, and conferences on the topic.

When I’m not writing for The Blaze, I work as an executive editor for The Heartland Institute, perhaps the world’s best-known climate-skeptic organization. I’ve read literally hundreds of articles on the subject, heard numerous speeches, and know personally some of the leading voices in the debate. It should be clear to anyone who has spent any time at all researching this subject that the overwhelming majority of climate-change skeptics believe Earth’s climate has been warming for more than a century.

Many also believe humans have had some impact, although skeptical scientists hold a wide array of views on that particular topic, and virtually all of them say the impact is much more limited than what someone like Al Gore would claim.

It is not in any way surprising to hear that the president believes humans are contributing in some form to higher temperatures. The more important questions in the debate have always been related to how much impact humans are having and whether warming is even a bad thing or can be stopped using the measures suggested by climate-change alarmists.

Almost everyone agrees Earth’s climate is warming and that Earth’s climate has warmed and cooled many times in the past. Nothing in Haley’s response denies the skeptics’ position on the theory of human-caused climate change, but it does reveal just how ignorant many people are about the debate.