The details: In an interview with the AP on Oct. 15, President Trump commented on a recent climate science report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The report, released Oct. 8, warned of potentially catastrophic consequences, such as the loss of the entire Greenland Ice Sheet, if warming surpasses 1.5°C, or 2.7°F, above preindustrial levels.

Trump dismissed the findings, saying scientists disagree about the basic conclusion of what is driving global warming:

Reality check: Studies show that the period from 1901 to 2016 "is now the warmest in the history of modern civilization," and human emissions of greenhouse gases are to blame.

Yes, but: Like the president, the American public seems to have a poor understanding of just how wide and deep the scientific consensus is on what is causing climate change.

The bottom line: There is evidence showing that when people gain a better understanding of the consensus, they are more likely to support policies to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. George Mason's Ed Maibach, who leads the Center for Climate Change Communication, told Axios that this is known as the "Gateway Belief Model."

Maibach added that, as Trump and others question the existence of a consensus among climate experts, they are sowing doubt in the minds of many Americans. "Regrettably, as they spread this misinformation, some members of the public accept this misinformation as true," he told Axios.

Details: Hurricane Willa is forecast to come ashore between Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta, sometime between Tuesday and Wednesday. Computer models largely agree on the storm's track, but differ on its forward speed, the National Hurricane Center noted Monday.

Between the lines: Hurricane Willa is yet another tropical cyclone this year to undergo an extended period of rapid intensification, as the destructive Hurricanes Florence and Michael did in the Atlantic basin. Such storms may be becoming more common as the oceans and atmosphere warms in response to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases.

• Willa's maximum sustained winds increased by 55 mph in 24 hours between Saturday and Sunday, according to weather.com, and kept increasing from Sunday evening through Monday morning.

The Eastern Pacific hurricane season is already setting records by at least one metric, known as the Accumulated Cyclone Energy, or ACE, which measures storms' power and longevity.

• According to data from Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach, the 2018 season became the most active Eastern Pacific hurricane season on record, dating back to 1971, based on the ACE index. The previous record was set in 1992.
• The cumulative ACE metric factors in the number, intensity and duration of each storm in a season. Long-lived, intense hurricanes have a high ACE index while short-lived, weak tropical storms have a low value.
• The ACE of a season is the sum of the ACE for each storm, taking into account the number, strength and duration of all the tropical storms and hurricanes in the season.

My thought bubble: The active Eastern Pacific season may be related to a brewing El Niño, which features above-average ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean.

What they did: For the study, a team of researchers in Europe produced the first-ever risk assessment of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites based on flood risk and exposure to erosion.

• They defined the flood risk as the floodplain of a storm surge with a 100-year return period, and calculated how such flood footprints and frequency would shift depending on different scenarios involving low, medium to high greenhouse gas emissions.
• The team looked at 49 World Heritage sites located within 10 meters, or 33 feet, above sea level.

What they found: The researchers found that the majority of the 49 World Heritage sites they examined are already at risk from either a 100-year flood level, erosion, or both.

Such risks are only going to increase during the rest of the century, with the sharpest increases occurring if greenhouse gas emissions are not significantly curtailed in the next two decades.

• Not surprisingly, the World Heritage Site that's at the most risk from sea level rise is Venice and its Lagoon. But costly protective measures are already being put into place there, in the form of a retractable barrier that can protect against high waters of up to 3.6 feet above sea level.
• World Heritage Sites located in the northern Adriatic Sea are also at high risk of flooding, particularly under a high emissions scenario. This includes the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia, in Italy.
• The country with the most at-risk sites is Italy, with 13, followed by Croatia and Greece.
• Only 2 sites — Medina of Tunis and Xanthos-Letoon, an archaeological complex in Greece, were found to not be at risk from either flooding or erosion by 2100 under any of the scenarios studied.

The researchers note that adaptation options may be limited, and that expensive solutions — such as the wall being erected around Venice — are not an option for many other sites.

"It is relatively easy to protect a working city, although it may be expensive and the political will may be lacking," Tol told Axios. "Heritage is more difficult as dikes and seawalls may ruin the very thing we seek to preserve."

Go deeper: Catch up with the NYT's project on covering climate change's threat to World Heritage Sites.