Many of the world’s finest scientists, including the world famous physicist Stephen Hawking, are openly voicing their concerns about a Donald Trump presidency. A recent open letter published by 375 scientists says that the global environment will face tremendous challenges if Trump wins the election in November.
Trump himself has been openly critical of global warming, even going so far as to claim that the idea that carbon emissions are poisoning our atmosphere and melting polar ice caps is a lie invented by Chinese propagandists.
Most scientists fear that Trump will take America out of the recent climate change treaty that was signed in Paris by President Obama. This treaty was agreed to by over 190 nations and was set to reduce carbon emissions by at least 47 percent in the nations that are the worst offenders. The treaty is going to be officially ratified by the end of the year, whether the U.S. is on it or not.
The scientists who penned this open letter say that there are two tipping points Americans should be concerned about in this election. The first tipping point is environmental. Although scientists do not know exactly how much longer until we pass the point of no return in terms of polar ice caps melting, once that threshold is passed we will certainly face enormous environmental threats. Scientists only know that the best way to avoid such a non-reversible catastrophe from ever happening is to curtail the production of carbon emissions.
The second tipping point scientists fear is a political one. They fear that if Trump is elected, and if Trump actually does pull out of the Paris Agreement, then it will send a negative message to the rest of the world in terms of pollution responsibility. America still has tremendous power to potentially change the status quo on pollution and carbon emissions in other nations. Without America’s full support of the Paris Agreement, other countries may not feel the need to curtail their own pollution issues.
Whenever Trump is asked by reporters why he does not support the Paris agreement, he says that the terms of that treaty would give far too much power to foreign bureaucrats and that America would have less of an ability to freely determine how it uses its energy. Critics of Trump’s stance, however, say that the Paris Agreement does allow different countries to devise different energy plans. Each country just has to share their emissions levels and targets in an international assembly every year.
Other critics believe that Trump is hostile to the Paris Agreement because he wants the support of multinational energy companies in the General Election. Of course, multinational energy companies have the most to lose with the ratification of the Paris Agreement, thus they will probably end up voting for Trump.
In any case, this year will certainly be an important one for climate change and how humanity moves forward in the face of these environmental challenges. According to the world’s most respected scientists, the better option in this election is Hilary Clinton.