The last time Donald Trump entered the White House and menaced efforts to stop the climate from overheating, affronted world leaders closed ranks against him.
Such defiance and unity are practically unthinkable this time.
Trump’s peers are disunited, focused inward and have already largely abandoned the vanguard of the fight to stop the planet from burning up.
Their list of excuses, in fairness, contains many serious matters. Wars and trade disputes have eroded international cooperation. A pile-up of global and domestic challenges has pushed climate change down — or off — the agenda when world leaders meet. The European powerhouses that eagerly claimed the climate mantle after Trump’s 2016 election are now fumbling through a house of mirrors as they confront economic decline, populism and what French President Emmanuel Macron warns could be the failure of the EU project. Many of these problems, by the way, will likely become even more daunting during a Trump presidency.
Simply put, leaders are distracted. The global order of recent generations is crumbling. It is, lamented U.N. climate change chief Simon Stiell in a recent speech, a “moment of […]
Wait! Climate change? Trump has specifically appointed Musk and Stephen Miller to wipe agencies clean of things that deal with climate change—-such as insuring that pollution is lower, rivers are not contaminated, etc. etc. Nope! Forget about healthful rules on anything with climate change or danger to the environment. Trump is removing all those so that business will continue to make its billions and enrich themselves even more. The planet nor out country are important to such as Trump! Only money and wealth and what’s in it for me?