Trump doesn’t get it

Dear editor:

Suspiciously released on Black Friday, a mandated scientific report compiled by 13 federal agencies, with input reaped from hundreds of scientists, points a bleak picture of the consequences of climate change. This report, however, actually draws conclusions and predictions of climate change on economic conditions, predicting growing numbers of wildfires, tropical storms and fluctuating temperatures “will knock off as much as 10 percent of the U.S. economy by century’s end.”

My own personal opinion of man-made climate change is it’s happening, will continue, and there’s not a lot we can do about it. The world’s population has increased almost eightfold in the past 2000 years. That means more people and less land left for vegetation, with trees, grass and plants that produce oxygen. Combine that with factories, people and machines producing far more carbon emissions than before, further destabilizing the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide. Any eighth-grader with a science course could figure that out, at least until he becomes a successful shareholder or CEO of an energy company, or a politician bought by him.

Then there’s President Donald Trump, recipient of a prestigious private education as a youth. Never one to be troubled by logic or science, when told about the report, Trump, citing a recent one-week cold trend in the northeast, tweeted “Whatever happened to global warming?”

Then again, we’re talking about a commander in chief who also stated this week “They’re making a mistake because I have a great gut, and my gut sometimes tells me more than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”

I could go on about the ineptitude of Trump and our current leadership in general, but space prohibits, and besides, my bone spurs are flaring up. Casey Alexander Mount Ida