Ice warning

Arguably the most significant world news event of the last several weeks was the 120-mile-long section of the Larsen C ice shelf breaking off the Antarctic continent.

The resulting trillion-ton iceberg is roughly the size of Delaware or seven times the size of New York City.

Scientists fear that the continuing loss of such large pieces of coastal ice may “uncork” the land ice they hold in place and cause catastrophic sea-level rise. Consequences include the devastation of densely populated coastal areas, the creation of millions of climate refugees, and massive destabilization of international political and economic systems.

Meanwhile, closer to home, every day brings new reports of destructive, life-threatening wildfires in the West and flooding, increasingly here in the Midwest. In more ways than one, we have generally come to accept disaster as the “new normal.”

By withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, the Trump administration has signaled its indifference to a global threat galvanizing every other major nation on earth. We should be mobilizing America’s ingenuity and resources to meet the environmental challenges that pose an existential threat to civilization and democracy world-wide.

As U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan in our neighboring state of Minnesota said recently, “The climate change issues that we face are as serious as the threat of nuclear war.”

That our president and his administration have consistently ignored the crisis of climate change should cause us to consider what we have to lose and how we allowed our country to turn away from participation in global survival strategies.

The newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed guarded optimism in getting Trump to rethink the Paris accord. Can he achieve what the collective clear heads of America have been unable to do and convince Trump to help “Make the planet great again?”

Thomas R. Smith River Falls