Former Vice President Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work in climate change activism, has accused President Donald Trump of launching a “jihad against the sustainability transition.”
On Fox Business with Maria Bartiromo, Trump’s Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, was asked for his opinion regarding Gore’s criticism.
Wright said: “Al Gore’s nonsense is exactly what got us in this position. He started peddling climate nonsense 20 years ago — the arctic was gonna have no ice anymore 10 years ago! Well, this year we had well more ice than we had 10 years ago in the arctic.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright: "Al Gore's nonsense is exactly what got us in this position. He started peddling climate nonsense 20 years ago — the arctic was gonna have no ice anymore 10 years ago! Well, this year we had well more ice than we had 10 years ago in the arctic." pic.twitter.com/4mMI9cjLqM
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 19, 2025
Note: According to National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, the Arctic sea ice minimum extent reached 4.60 million sq km in September 2025, compared to 4.41 million sq km in September 2015. While there is slightly more at the annual minimum this year, both measurements are among the lowest on record, and the long-term trend shows decline.
More than one X user objected to Wright’s claim about “having more ice” and shared data provided by NASA that says otherwise.
This is NASA!https://t.co/TUMRLOb7bf
— Badd Company (@BaddCompani) September 19, 2025
Others saying the Energy Secretary is not wrong to call out Gore for his “overblown rhetoric” which has “been a gift to skeptics, muddying the waters for decades,” also warn Wright not to “kid yourself cherry-picking one year to dunk on the science. The Arctic’s been hemorrhaging ice since the ‘80s—down 50%, with the thick, old stuff practically extinct.”
One commenter frustrated with Wright’s response wrote: “Stop lobbing grenades at 20-year-old soundbites and start slinging solutions… If you think climate’s a distraction, fine—make the case for energy dominance with hard numbers and real plans. More reactors, better gas tech, or something bolder. What’s your move to keep the lights on and the world spinning, no matter what the Arctic does next? Step up or get out of the way.
Government and Public Policy Professor Paul Mann of William & Mary replied: “I’m old enough to remember when Al Gore was hammered for saying that eventually we’ll replace the internal combustion engine with something better for the environment. Tesla and all the other EV companies clearly don’t think that was ‘nonsense.'”
