Global Warming Exists Only On a Small Slice of Beachfront Property in Ireland Owned By Donald Trump
For all the ways in which Donald Trump supposedly represents the destruction of the Republican party, the presumptive presidential nominee has toed the line on global warming, deeming himself a nonbeliever even as he’s drifted away from the most hardcore anti-climate change rhetoric. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that all changes when the future of one of his businesses is at stake.
As The Politico reports, the Trump International Hotel & Golf Links in Doonbeg, Ireland recently filed a permit application to build a sea wall along the beach of its golf course to protect it from erosion and rising sea levels as caused by global warming:
The statement acknowledges one Irish government study that assumes a steady rate of erosion through 2050, but argues that the study fails to account for the effects of climate change: “If the predictions of an increase in sea level rise as a result of global warming prove correct, however, it is likely that there will be a corresponding increase in coastal erosion rates not just in Doughmore Bay but around much of the coastline of Ireland. In our view, it could reasonably be expected that the rate of sea level rise might become twice of that presently occurring. … As a result, we would expect the rate of dune recession to increase.”
The bigger problem, though, according to the impact statement, will be the erosion caused by larger, more frequent storms. “As with other predictions of global warming and its effects, there is no universal consensus regarding changes in these events,” it states. “Our advice is to assume that the recent average rate of dune recession will not alter greatly in the next few decades, perhaps as far into the future as 2050 as assumed in the [government study] but that subsequently an increase in this rate is more likely than not.”
This is the second time the Trump complex in Doonbeg has petitioned for special permission to erect a sea wall along its property. One such appeal was already denied by the national government, which has forced the hotel to turn to the local government in Clare County to approve its request to pile 200,000 tons of rock along the property’s two mile-long beach.
Though Trump has previously boasted about his involvement with his Irish resort, its unclear to what extent he was involved with the petition that is happy to feed into global warming panic. The report, which the resort commissioned, was prepared by an Irish environmental consultancy group named TIGL Ireland Enterprises. The Daily Caller spinned the story thusly, arguing that “in reality, this only shows Trump uses global warming alarmism to benefit his business,” though it’s hard to see how “Donald Trump is just pretending” presents him in a more positive light.