Planet’s fate sealed, so why change: Trump team

Last month, deep in a 500-page environmental impact statement, the Trump administration made a startling assumption: On its current course, the planet will warm a disastrous roughly 4 degree Celsius by the end of this century.

That would be catastrophic, say scientists. Coral reefs would dissolve in increasingly acidic oceans. Parts of Manhattan and Miami would be underwater. Extreme heat waves would routinely smother large parts of the globe. But the administration did not offer this dire forecast as part of an argument to combat climate change. Just the opposite: The analysis assumes the planet’s fate is already sealed.

The draft statement, issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was written to justify President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze federal fuel efficiency standards for vehiclesbuilt after 2020. While the proposal would increase greenhouse gas emissions, the impact statement says that policy would be a small drop in a big, hot bucket.

“They’re saying is human activities are going to lead to this rise of carbon dioxide that is disastrous for the environment and society. And then they’re saying they’re not going to do anything about it,” said Michael MacCracken, who served as a senior scientist at the U.S. Global Change Research Program from 1993 to 2002.