An article from Media Matters for America covers a recent CNN segment that invited Rutgers University climate scientist, lead author on U.N. climate assessments, and RCEI affiliate Robert Kopp on air to push back against a common piece of climate misinformation: the idea that extreme cold weather disproves global warming. The piece focuses on a January 25, 2026 episode of CNN This Morning Weekend, which aired as President Donald Trump announced plans to withdraw the United States from a U.N. climate treaty—coinciding with a massive winter storm affecting tens of millions of Americans .
Trump used the cold temperatures to mock global warming, implying that frigid weather contradicts climate science. The article highlights how this claim reflects a persistent misunderstanding of climate change, which is based on long-term global trends rather than short-term, local weather events. With the U.S. potentially stepping away from international climate negotiations and public confusion around climate science and policy arising, clarity is more important than ever.
During the interview hosted by CNN anchor Victor Blackwell, Kopp directly explained why cold snaps do not invalidate global warming. He noted,
“The United States is not, in fact, the world, and global warming is a global phenomenon. Just because it’s cold where I am … doesn’t mean it’s cold everywhere.”
Kopp further emphasized that cold winters will still occur even as average global temperatures rise, pointing out that while parts of the U.S. were experiencing extreme cold, other regions—such as Greenland and southern Australia—were seeing unusually warm conditions, providing scientific context to a heavily misleading political rhetoric about the reality of climate change.
Read the full article here.
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