Trump’s mission: Please the base, destroy the planet
How depressing to watch history being made, in the worst possible way. I was in the Rose Garden on June 1, when Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris Accords on global warming.
There are so many ways to describe that decision: ignorant, ill-considered, rash, unwise, unpopular, childish and dangerous. In a word, it is so “Trumpian.”
In a way, pulling the plug on Paris was the perfect culmination of Trump’s disastrous visit to Europe, which Press Secretary Sean Spicer hailed as “historic.” But it was historic only in the sense that Trump inherited the good will accumulated over 70-plus years of strategic partnership on social, economic and national security issues with our strongest allies — and destroyed it all in one single day.
After badgering, lecturing, and insulting world leaders, Trump left behind such a stink that Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, had to warn her fellow EU leaders that they could no longer count on the leadership of the United States. We are no longer a reliable partner. Her comments infuriated Trump. Yet he’d no sooner returned to the States than he proved Merkel right by ditching the Paris Accords, which every other NATO member had just reconfirmed.
Nobody should be surprised by Trump’s move. After all, this is the candidate who called climate change “a hoax invented by the Chinese,” who called the Paris Agreement “a bad deal,” and promised to weasel his way out of it. Still, no matter how long he serves as president, Donald Trump will never make a worse decision because he will never make a decision with more serious consequences.
Hammering out the Paris Agreement took decades of negotiation, led by the United States, and joined in the end by 195 nations. Running away from the deal we put together less than a year after it took effect makes us look like a global flake: joining Syria and Nicaragua as one of only three outlier countries — and Nicaragua refused to join because Paris did not go far enough.
But Trump’s move not only harms the reputation of the United States, it puts our entire economy at risk. As Businessweek, the voice of corporate America, warned this week: “An exit would undermine America’s economic competitiveness, technological innovation, and global leadership. Not to mention the, um, planet.” Which is why business leaders like Tim Cook of Apple, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Tesla’s Elon Musk — even the Pope! — urged Trump to stay in the pact. Instead, Trump chose to follow climate denier Scott Pruitt.
Get serious, Mr. Trump. Global warming’s no longer something to fear in the future. It’s real, it’s here, and it’s already having a serious negative impact on the environment and the economy. The evidence is all around us. According to NASA, 16 out of the hottest 17 years on record have occurred since 2001, with 2016 the warmest ever. Montana’s Glacier National Park once boasted 150 glaciers; it now has 26. Scientists cite a direct link between climate change and more powerful rain and snow storms, and more intense periods of drought.
Perhaps the most immediate impact is the already alarming rise in sea levels: streets of Miami experiencing daily flooding; Alaskan villages forced to move to the mainland; Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C., projected to experience an 11- to 21-inch rise in sea level by 2050, wiping out major population centers. The giant naval station at Norfolk, Va., headquarters of the Atlantic fleet, floods at least 10 times a year — and the Navy’s making plans to relocate.
You wonder: The consequences of global warming are so severe, how can Donald Trump ignore the science and risk upending the American economy? Believe it or not, here’s the best explanation the White House can come up with: Because he promised as a candidate to drop out of Paris, and he can’t disappoint his base. Disappoint his base? Oh, please. How idiotic. I care more about our kids and grandkids than I do about Trump’s unenlightened base.
Things are already so grave that John Coequyt, the Sierra Club’s global climate policy director, told me it’s no longer possible to reverse climate change. All we can do is slow it down and minimize the damage. And Donald Trump won’t even do that.
Which proves there’s something fundamentally wrong with our system of government. The president of the United States has the power to do many things. Destroying the planet should not be one of them.