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America’s New Language of Climate Denial

The Trump administration has moved from outright denying the science of global warming to simply dismissing it.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

Photo illustration: 731; Photos: Getty Images; Bloomberg

For years, President Donald Trump has denied the science behind global warming. Since the start of his second term, however, his administration has leaned less on climate denial and more on what might be called climate dismissal: diminishing, ridiculing or rejecting the idea that climate change is worth any effort to study or try to slow.

They’ve engaged in what Jennifer Mercieca, a professor of communication and journalism at Texas A&M University, calls “frame warfare”—dramatically recasting the words used to describe a topic in an attempt to change people’s perceptions. Whether the evidence for global warming is called “unequivocal,” as scientists and governments agree that it is, or “crap,” as the US defense secretary has called it, can shape a listener’s likelihood to take action or obstruct it.