This past week, the Trump administration released a report outlining a grim future for the United States and world. According to the findings, which are the product of the results of the work of 300 researchers, the nation is set to lose one-tenth of its GDP by 2100 as it hurdles towards catastrophic warming of three degrees Fahrenheit in that same time frame. Those looking to President Donald Trump for support in this time of looming crisis would find — nothing.
Monday, speaking to reporters outside the White House, the president asserted that he “doesn’t believe” the findings.
He explained of the report:
‘I’ve seen it, I’ve read some of it, and it’s fine. I don’t believe it. And here’s another thing, you’re going to have to have China and Japan and all of Asia and all of these other countries — you know, it addresses our country. Right now we’re the cleanest we’ve ever been, and that’s very important to me. But if we’re clean, and every other place on earth is dirty, that’s not so good. So I want clean air, I want clean water — very important.’
Trump dismisses govt report about dire economic consequences of climate change: “I don’t believe it. And here’s other thing, you’re going to have to China & Japan & all of Asia & all of these other countries — you know, it addresses our country. Right now we’re the cleanest.” pic.twitter.com/8vCeHepvGM
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 26, 2018
To suggest that “we’re clean and every other place is dirty” is a gross simplification of the situation. The struggle to maintain the world’s climate isn’t a contest of who has the bigger stick or the better numbers, since we’re all on the same planet.
The report in question doesn’t separate the United States from the effects of climate change just because it’s got Donald Trump at the helm at the moment, asserting:
‘Without substantial and sustained global mitigation and regional adaptation efforts, climate change is expected to cause growing losses to American infrastructure and property and impede the rate of economic growth over this century.’
However, Trump seems to take the latest warnings about the incoming effects of climate change as an affront to his ego and little else. He wants America — and his leadership — to be best to the point of completely ignoring and dismissing reality — and that’s not just hyperbole or conjecture.
He offered similar reasoning when he withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord, claiming it as an affront to the utopia he’s supposedly enacting in the U.S. — despite the fact that climate change continues to approach whether he likes it or not.
Backing that move up, his administration has moved to undercut environmental regulations wherever it can, aiming to slash the Clean Power Plan, the Waters of the United States rule, and beyond.
In the past, Trump has infamously suggested that global warming is a hoax invented by the Chinese as — you guessed it — a jab at American industry dollars.
Just recently, he suggested that global warming and climate change aren’t as bad as scientists claim because of the cold weather wave that hit the East Coast around the Thanksgiving holiday — although in reality, it’s yet another example of the extreme weather that’s spiked in the aftermath of globally warming average temperatures.
Imagine being so attached to an ideology that you refuse to recognize the tangible reality of climate change right in front of you.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
