What were Jordan's views on Global Warming?

It is of course unclear whether Jordan's views on climate change influenced the particular depiction mentioned in the question. While not implausible—the phenomenon itself was talked about beyond the scientific community in late 1980s—there are certainly other possibilities. Most notably, a swollen red sun recalls, more than warming caused by the greenhouse effect, the end stage of many stars' life cycles. This is the same sort of portrayal that appeared in The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis, or even in The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. These portrayals actually postdate the first theoretical scientific descriptions of the greenhouse effect at the atmospheric level, but they certainly predate general knowledge of climate change. In fact, I do not know if red giants as older stars were known at the time Wells wrote The Time Machine, so he might have been influenced by the fact that a setting sun appears large and red.

However, regardless of whether these ideas influenced the author or not, the question of what his personal opinions were is interesting, and by an extraordinary stroke of luck, we do have some information about Robert Jordan's personal views, which are generally on-topic under our "fan information" questions. This is from an interview that he gave in 2000, transcribed here. The questions appear to have been largely translated from Russian.

INTERVIEW: Sep, 2000 Wanderer Fantasy Convention - "Wars of the Future" with Robert Jordan (Translated)

QUESTION You mean something like global warming?

ROBERT JORDAN Climate change in the future makes me more than worried, even if one considers only the favorable scenario. If we consider the worst, then I’m terrified. They can be avoided, but... The nations of the Third World demand exclusive rights in the fight against global warming, because, if you follow their logic, everything that happens is a conspiracy against them personally, and they should have a chance to become equal to the developed world. If our leaders grant them these rights, in the coming century, China will be the main polluter of the environment and the major contributor to global warming on Earth, but who can stop them? So the climate becomes a wild card in the total war game. Which of the nations will suddenly discover that they have too little land to feed themselves, and decide to take land from their neighbors? Which nation, upset by the changes in climate that have been caused by the attempt to become equal with the civilized world, will go down the ancient path of resolving internal conflict, i.e. foreign war?

We believe that we can limit the future of war—the length, the amount of bloodshed, the site of action—but can we really? Can we at least know where the next war will come from, or who will be our new enemy? Today in the heart of Africa, in Congo, there are seven tribes and the three rebel groups engaged in what many call the "First World War in Africa." The United Nations are trying to stop the conflict, but without visible results. You can try to believe that this war is far away or that it involves only a third world country or that this war doesn’t affect us, but history has seen cases, where a miniscule conflict turned into a large-scale war. The fire of the First World War started from a single spark, but who could believe that everything starts with the Serbian attempt to gain independence from Austria-Hungary? Any "reasonable" person of that time would say that this is not enough to spark the fire.

What I gather this about his opinions:

• He thought that global warming was definitely real and a serious threat.

• He believed that it could lead to conflicts.

• He thought that climate change could be avoided, but was pessimistic about the probability of success, mainly blaming developing countries.

• And, although this is not directly related to his beliefs about climate change, I note that he had some inaccurate or downright prejudiced beliefs about countries that he would have characterized as belonging to the "Third World", contrasting them in a rather retrograde fashion with the "civilized world," suggesting that their rights would need to be "granted" by said world, and attributing greenhouse gas emissions largely to their desire for economic growth. Also, they called the Second Congo War "Africa's World War," not "The First World War in Africa" but that is perhaps nitpicking.