Climate scientists around the world have been shocked by the recent election of Donald Trump to the most powerful office in the world – largely due to his stated stance on the issue of climate change. He apparently thinks it is all merely a big hoax perpetrated by the Chinese in order the ruin our economy. Mr. Trump has to be the most ill-informed president the USA has ever elected to that office. Therefore, we must hope that some of the statements being made by a multitude of climate scientists get through to him. I wish to refer you here to one of these in which the problem is framed around “betting”, a topic of keen interest to casino owner Trump. This statement was written by Bill McKibben and appeared in the Washington Post yesterday. It can be seen at:
We are clearly at a moment in the history of mankind at which the terrible wager threatened by President-elect Trump would, if taken, ensure a long-term downward spiral of all civilizations mankind has built on this planet. It is essentially a bet against physics and the laws of nature that have been deduced by scientists over the last two centuries. Trump clearly knows a lot about our business-as-usual world. His knowledge of the rest of human endeavors and our planet itself, however, is sophomoric, at best. It is nothing short of mindboggling and frightening to realize that the fate of mankind has fallen into the hands of such a poorly informed individual. Hopefully, the likes of Bill McKibben and other scientists will be able to help him see the unprecedented importance of his pending actions.
Our last Republican President stirred up a hornet’s nest in the Middle East by invading Iraq while wasting a decade of potential action against climate change. Our next one will create even more chaos throughout the entire world if he chooses to invade the life-sustaining environmental system that Mother Nature has created over the last several millennia. Therefore, I will add the following message to the “victorious” Republicans. Have you no sense of shame? This is your own species and your own descendants that you are putting at grave risk. Perhaps you could at last become part of the solution on climate change – starting by reigning in your President-elect.
ericgrimsrud 
“Mr. Trump has to be the most ill-informed president the USA has ever elected to that office. Therefore, we must hope that some of the statements being made by a multitude of climate scientists get through to him.”
I’m sure Eric that it will be a surprise to you to learn that real science is not one where consensus matters. I’m sure you recall the embarrassment that the Catholic Church still is stung with when they claimed that the sun was the center of the universe.
You seem to imply that consensus, 97% of the climate EXPERTS, (who knows where that figure comes from?) translates into something being irrevocably TRUE. Can you tell me what percentage of the clergy at the time of the 1633 trial of Galileo when ”Galileo’s world of science and humanism collides with the world of Scholasticism and absolutism that held power in the Catholic Church.” sided with the believes of the church? BTW: Again I ask you, what’s so unusual about today’s weather and what kind of weather/climate would you want? We can only thank our lucky stars that you and your ilk have no control over that.
By: John Swallow on May 5, 2017
at 10:51 pm