If you only have a few seconds, read these lines:
- Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy participated in the August 23, 2023, first Republican Party primary debate for the 2024 presidential campaign.
- Ramaswamy claimed that ‘the climate change agenda is a deception’ and that ‘more people are dying from bad climate change policies than from actual climate change.’
- The fact that climate change is real and caused by human activity is something that multiple scientific institutions agree upon. Furthermore, there is no evidence to suggest that ‘more people are dying from bad climate change policies than from actual climate change.’
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy discussed climate change in the first Republican Party primary debate for the 2024 presidential campaign, held on August 23, 2023. He stated, “The climate agenda is a deception.” Some reports have interpreted this statement as Ramaswamy denying the existence of this phenomenon when, in reality, there is international scientific consensus on the matter. Furthermore, there is no evidence to suggest that “more people are dying from bad climate change policies than from actual climate change,” contrary to what the businessman indicated.
It is not true that climate change is a deception
Vivek Ramaswamy claimed in the debate that the “climate change agenda is a deception.” Factchequeado has reached out to his team to inquire about the exact meaning behind this statement, but we have not received a response at this time.
There are those who have claimed that what Ramaswamy meant by this statement is that climate change is a deception. Something that is false. Scientifically, there is no doubt that the planet is hotter today than it was 200 years ago and that human beings are responsible for the change in Earth’s temperature and its associated effects, as explained by Maldita.es, a founding member of Factchequeado.
That climate change is real and caused by human activity is something that international scientific institutions such as NASA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine of the United States agree on.
Climate change has caused warmer temperatures and extreme weather events. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine of the United States state that warming increases the likelihood of extremely hot days and nights, promotes increased atmospheric moisture that can lead to heavy rainfall and more frequent snowfall, and triggers evaporation that can exacerbate droughts.
This phenomenon has also caused a sea level rise of between 21 and 24 centimeters since 1880, according to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The melting of glaciers and ice sheets and the thermal expansion of seawater as it warms are responsible for this increase, which, in addition to contributing to coastal erosion, increases the risk of flooding.
There is no evidence that more people are dying “due to bad climate change policies than from actual climate change”
“The reality is that the anti-carbon agenda is the wet blanket on our economy. Therefore, the reality is that more people are dying from bad climate change policies than from actual climate change,” Ramaswamy stated in the debate, without specifying what “bad policies” he was referring to or providing any sources or evidence on the matter. We have also inquired about this to Factchequeado, but we have not received a response yet.
“I don’t know of any climate policy that is killing people,” said Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences and director of the Texas Climate Center at Texas A&M University, to Politifact, a media partner of Factchequeado. “However, fossil fuels kill millions of people each year due to air pollution.”
<Dessler pointed to a 2021 study published by Harvard University in collaboration with other institutions that found over 8 million people worldwide died in 2018 due to fossil fuel pollution.
There is ample evidence that the human cost of climate change is significant. Earth experienced the hottest June in recorded history in 2023, the hottest in the past 174 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Extreme heat prevents nighttime rest, exacerbates pre-existing illnesses, and leads to heat strokes, increasing mortality, as we explain in this article by Factchequeado.
The World Health Organization states that at least 15,000 people died worldwide in 2022 due to heat. In the United States, approximately 618 people die each year from this cause, according to the CDC, the disease control agency.
In addition to this, extreme climate disasters exacerbated by climate change caused over 2 million deaths on the planet between 1970 and 2021, as indicated by the World Meteorological Organization.
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Also, read:
Por qué sí es cierto el Cambio Climático y no debes creer en estas narrativas de los negacionistas
