Trump has stated that he’s "not a big believer in man-made climate change," and even claimed in 2012 that, "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive." When President Obama spoke about the need for America to seriously address climate issues last fall, Trump called it, "one of the dumbest statements I've ever heard in politics, in the history of politics as I know it."
But a 2009 ad placed in the New York Times, advertising the United Nation Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which says addressing climate change will, "create new energy jobs" and "spur economic growth," carries the endorsement of one Donald J. Trump, as well as his three adult children.
With the ad came an open letter to Congress and President Obama, saying that, "If we fail to act now, it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet."
The Trump-endorsed letter implored US officials to enact meaningful climate policy, and to take a leadership role in a global movement to restore the environment. "We support your effort to ensure meaningful and effective measures to control climate change, an immediate challenge facing the United States and the world today. Please allow us, the United States of America, to serve in modeling the change necessary to protect humanity and our planet," read the letter, in part.
This is not the controversial real estate maven’s only foray into supporting environmental activism. In 2014 he donated $5,000 to Protect Our Winters, a climate action group composed of skiers and snowboarders. When coastal erosion threatened one of his golf courses in Ireland, Trump attempted to build a seawall so that what he termed "global warming and its effects" would not harm his property. Now the candidate calls global warming "a total hoax."
Only two months after signing the 2009 letter, Trump derided Al Gore, saying the former Vice President should have his Nobel Prize taken away because the previous winter had been cold. "Gore wants us to clean up our factories and plants in order to protect us from global warming, when China and other countries couldn't care less. It would make us totally noncompetitive in the manufacturing world, and China, Japan and India are laughing at America's stupidity." the candidate said.
