Climate change denier Donald Trump embarrasses America again. Trump was the only leader at the G-20 summit to ignore the battle against climate change.
Meanwhile, the U.S. once again marked its differences with the rest of the G20 by reiterating in the statement its decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and its commitment to using all kinds of energy sources.
The other members of the group reaffirmed their commitment to implement the Paris deal and tackle climate change, taking into account their national circumstances and relative capabilities.
You would think that after a dire climate change report, from multiple U.S. federal agencies, Trump would rethink his denier position. Especially as the reports noted the future impact to our economy.
But in direct language, the 1,656-page assessment lays out the devastating effects of a changing climate on the economy, health and environment, including record wildfires in California, crop failures in the Midwest and crumbling infrastructure in the South. Going forward, American exports and supply chains could be disrupted, agricultural yields could fall to 1980s levels by midcentury and fire season could spread to the Southeast, the report finds.
Trump’s response to this impending disaster. Policies that will make things worse.
Predictably, the White House has shrugged off the report as it pursues environmental and industrial policies that will worsen the problem. But this warning, like others coming from the entire global scientific community, must not be ignored.
For all its political controversy, the basic facts surrounding human-caused climate change aren’t significantly debatable. In the past century, as humanity has burned exponentially more fossil fuels than ever before, the measurable presence of resulting greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide — which traps heat in the atmosphere — has skyrocketed.
The climate change head in the sand “president” in action. It’s truly incredible.
As long as this wrecking ball occupies the White House, absolutely nothing will be done about climate change here. Other countries are taking the lead and we have a bona fide climate change denier as “president”.
The mid-term elections were one of the most important of our lifetimes. We won back the House. We now have a check on Trump for the next couple of years. The 2020 presidential election will be the next most important election of our lifetime, to save our climate from Trump and his cronies.