Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar faced criticism online after she claimed that Earth had broken the record for the hottest day in 120,000 years.
Omar used this claim to advocate for a declaration of a “climate emergency.” However, her tweet was met with skepticism. It received a Twitter community note casting doubt on her assertion.
Omar’s Climate Change Claim Draws Criticism from Conservative Figures
Stephen Miller, a former White House advisor, challenged Omar’s claim with a sarcastic comment. Similarly, Trent Staggs, the current mayor of Riverton, Utah and a Republican Senate candidate, questioned if Omar’s tweet was meant to be satire.
The basis of Omar’s claim appears to be a report from local Florida outlet WFLA-TV, which cited the dashboard of the Climate Reanalyzer by the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute.
This tool compiles weather data from 1979 onwards, but it explicitly states that its data “should NOT be taken as ‘official’ observational records.”
The earth just broke the record for the hottest day in 120,000 years. In fact, we broke in on three separate days.
National climate emergency now.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) July 17, 2023
Furthermore, the WFLA-TV report notes that weather record-keeping began in the 1800s. Any data from before this period relies on the interpretation of “proxy data” like tree rings, ice cores, and ocean sediments.
Critics Mock Omar’s Claim About Earth’s Temperature History
Commentator Greg Price pointed out that reliable temperature measurements only began after the invention of the thermometer, long after the time period Omar referred to.
Conservative author Dinesh D’Souza challenged Omar to provide evidence supporting her claim about the Earth’s temperature tens of thousands of years ago.
Conservative blogger Kate Hyde mocked Omar’s claim, while Daily Wire host Matt Walsh dismissed it as “hysterical.”
Jeremy Redfern, a spokesperson for Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, suggested that calls for a “national climate emergency” are simply a pretext for advancing a left-wing agenda.
Does she think we kept climate records 120,000 years ago? https://t.co/YdQD0cw2dY
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) July 18, 2023
While President Biden made combating climate change a priority, he has not officially declared a national climate emergency. This would allow him to bypass Congress and take a range of regulatory actions usually outside the purview of the White House.
