Add Wind Power to the Long List of Things Donald Trump Gets Wrong About Science

Donald Trump has always had a very problematic relationship with science. Yesterday he ramped up his attacks on wind power by claiming the noise associated with wind turbines can cause cancer. Like a lot of what the President says about science, his comment is nonsense, without any basis in fact. Republican Senator Sen. Grassley called his statement "idiotic" but it's just another in a long list of the President's lies/misconceptions/conspiracy theories [take your pick] about science-related topics. Here are a few other doozies.

1. Cancer-causing Light Bulbs:

Trump on Twitter; "Remember, new "environment friendly" lightbulbs can cause cancer. Be careful-- the idiots who came up with this stuff don't care."

Perhaps if you eat them.

2. Life Saving Asbestos:

Trump on Twitter: "If we didn't remove incredibly powerful fire retardant asbestos & replace it with junk that doesn't work, the World Trade Center would never have burned down."

Asbestos causes cancer, and it doesn't stop buildings from collapsing.

3. Raking the Forests to Prevent Wild Fires: Trump suggested CA was negligent in their forest management and should rake the forests like the Finns.

LA Times: Among Finns, though, what caused the most giddy outbursts of incredulity on social media was Trump’s suggestion that Finns have somehow avoided California’s fate by spending their time outdoors raking the forest floors. The hashtag #haravointi — raking in Finnish — quickly began ricocheting around the internet, with Finns posting mock photos of themselves posing with rakes in the forest. Some dug up old images of Finnish soldiers in the woods during World War II, added rakes and invented new farcical captions referencing Trump’s comment. Even Finland’s nationally beloved cartoon character, a cuddly marshmallow-like animal named Moomin, made appearances exhorting Finns to keep raking.

4. Climate Scientist Conspiracy: The President is a well known climate change denier, but recently he has started to accuse climate scientists of conspiring to advance some unknown political agenda.

Illuminate: And when asked about the warnings by climate scientists about warming oceans and stronger hurricanes he [Trump] unleashed his new conspiracy theory saying, “you’d have to show me the scientists because they have a very big political agenda.” He didn't suggest what that political agenda might be and it's difficult to image scientists from all over the world involved in a decades-long conspiracy to scare people into reducing fossil fuel consumption.

5. Useless Exercise: Other than golf, Trump has cautioned that exercise is harmful:

Vox: "The Trump “human body as non-rechargeable battery” theory was first detailed by Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher in their 2016 book, Trump Revealed:

"After college, after Trump mostly gave up his personal athletic interests, he came to view time spent playing sports as time wasted. Trump believed the human body was like a battery, with a finite amount of energy, which exercise only depleted. So he didn’t work out. When he learned that John O’Donnell, one of his top casino executives, was training for an Ironman triathlon, he admonished him, "You are going to die young because of this."

6. Vaccinations and Autism: Trump has a long relationship with the anti-vax community, although he seems to have developed his own misguided theory that children develop autism because they are over-vaccinated:

Trump via Twitter: "Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!"

Such gibberish is fueling measles outbreaks around the country as parents find loopholes to allow their children to skip vaccinations, but Trump refuses to retract his comments.

Trump's ignorance and deceit regarding almost everything having to do with science is maddening, more so because there are actually Americans who may respect him enough to listen to his nonsense.

#Trump #news #science