Donald Trump and climate change

As I have argued in a previous post, a Trump presidency will reverberate across the globe, and too, with important implications on the world environmental situation. This time, I would like to specifically link it with a deeply disturbing news.

In a report published on The Independent, climatologists warned that it could be “game over” for humanity soon. Within a lifetime, we may see global temperatures rise by over 7 degrees Celsius, as we continue to pump an increasing amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Part of the report reads, “According to the current best estimate, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), if humans carry on with a “business as usual” approach using large amounts of fossil fuels, the Earth’s average temperature will rise by between 2.6 and 4.8 degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2100.”

The trajectory of things happening is easy to imagine from here: Polar ice caps will melt, facilitating flooding in low-lying areas even after what is previously tagged as normal rainfall. We will experience harsher winters and hotter summers – a tragedy for those whose livelihoods depend on a more balanced ecological conditions: Farming, fishing, to name a few. When this happens, our peasants and fisherfolk are set to harvest way less produce than ever before.

Here in the United States, our farmers are relatively more moneyed and equipped with technologies, and also benefit from government subsidies. In less developed parts of the world, the impacts of climate change can only mean hunger in poor farming and fishing communities that have no financial means to deal with less water for irrigation, and long, dry spells. We might see the emergence of new diseases, too.

The fact is, we need to pour more investments towards climate change programs not just for our country but throughout the world. Unfortunately, Trump’s campaign has promised to do exactly the opposite.

Within his first 100 days, he said that he will “cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America's water and environmental infrastructure.” The United States might also pull out from the Paris treaty, under Trump.

These are not the things we need in what has already described been described by scientists as an emergency situation. Surely, there is a need for all of us to campaign, and campaign hard, for a more sensible response from the government to this important issue.

Author's Note: This is a guest blog post by Richard A. Kimball, a California native who enjoys writing and blogging about the environment. To read more of his work, you can visit his blog, Facebook or Twitter.