10.20.2025
Climate Change, the Greatest Con Job Ever (U.N. Speech by Trump)
Hiroshi L. Tanaka
Professor Emeritus, University of Tsukuba
International Environment and Economy Institute (IEEI)
October 17, 2025
Global warming is a hoax
In his presentation at the General Assembly of United Nations on September 23, 2025, President Trump stated, “Global warming is a hoax ” and that climate change policy is “The greatest con job ever.” He justified his decision to withdraw from the Paris Accord, arguing, “If you don’t withdraw from this green scam, your country is going to fail.” During the U.N. General Assembly, President Trump faced a series of harassing incidents, including an escalator he and his wife boarded suddenly stopping, and the teleprompter he used for his speech not working. As a result, his 15-minute speech was extended to an hour, allowing us to hear a bunch of Trump’s thoughts on net-zero carbon policy.
When President Trump says, “global warming is a hoax,” many viewers will think he’s a crazy president who ignores science. However, this phrase is quite clever and accurate. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change defines global warming as warming caused by an increased anthropogenic greenhouse gas. Therefore, by definition, “global warming is a hoax”
because most of it is due to natural variability as he thinks while global-mean temperature has certainly increased in recent years. Here, natural variability refers to changes in geophysical fluids that occur even the absence of anthropogenic CO2. Recently, the term “climate change” has come to be used instead of “global warming,” implying that natural variability is always included in observed warming.
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has stated that there is “no doubt” that recent warming is anthropogenic. It implies that natural variability accounts for only 10% or less of the total. In contrast, skeptics believe that recent warming is mostly due to natural variability, and the influence of anthropogenic CO2 may be negligible. This is where the different perception lies between President Trump and IPCC. However, separating the causes of global warming into natural and anthropogenic variability is extremely difficult, and nobody knows the exact proportions.
https://co2coalition.org/news/climate-change-the-greatest-con-job-ever-u-n-speech-by-trump/
