On Sunday, second lady Usha Vance posted a video to her SLOTUS Instagram account announcing her upcoming trip to Kalaallit Nunnaat, Greenland, to attend a dog sled race.
The video features the 39-year-old standing in front of a mantel in a room with limited decor. Despite the bland background, however, one particular item can be spotted in the top left hand corner of the screen; a small figurine standing in front of a book written by a vice president of the United States.
You might assume the one book featured in the room would be Hillbilly Elegy, written by her husband, JD Vance. But instead, it’s Earth in the Balance, authored by Bill Clinton’s VP, Al Gore.
First published in 1992, Gore’s book was an early warning about the “grave danger” presented by climate change. In a foreword to the 2006 reissue, Gore wrote, “Global warming is real, it is getting worse rapidly, it is mainly caused by human beings, we need to act now to avoid the worst of its consequences.”
Contrast that with the stance of the Trump administration, which has called global warming “a hoax.” Just a few days ago, President Donald Trump revoked a Biden-era rule that would have taxed methane pollution. Meanwhile, Lee Zeldin, the current head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is gleefully rolling back regulations.
“We are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion,” Zeldin announced.
So what message was the second lady trying to send by displaying Gore’s book? Is she a secret climate change denier denier?
Greenland is already experiencing negative environmental impacts due to rising temperatures that are melting year-round sea ice and causing “ice quakes.” Greenland has also suffered another unwelcome symptom of global change: a visit from Donald Trump Jr. on the family’s Boeing 757.
Perhaps SLOTUS wanted to subliminally assure the people of Greenland that she’s an ally and shares their grave concerns about the planet.
Still, on the surface, Vance could not have appeared bubblier. She said she was “thrilled” to be attending a dog sled race before adding, “I’m also coming to express that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years. I look forward to meeting many of you soon and to learning from you about your beautiful land, culture and traditions.”
This tone is markedly different from her husband who in February, told Fox News, that if President Trump wants “to take more territorial interest in Greenland, that is what President Trump is going to do because he doesn’t care about what the Europeans scream at us, he cares about putting the interests of America’s citizens first.”
Clearly, it’s a mixed message.
The sub-title of Gore’s book is “Ecology and the Human Spirit.” In his introduction, Gore muses that examining global warming forced him to look not just externally, but internally
“I had to look inside myself and confront some difficult and painful questions about what I am really seeking in my own life, and why,” the former vice president wrote.
Whether or not Vance has highlighted that sentence remains unknown.
