President Donald Trump’s decisions on the climate could be a disaster for the planet, warned famed physicist Stephen Hawking. “We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible,” Hawking told the BBC in an interview to mark his 75th birthday. “Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulphuric acid.”
The most famous scientist in the world raised particular concern about Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate accord, as well as his well-publicized doubts about whether global warming is real in the first place. He also expressed frustration at the situation, noting that while global warming is a clear and present danger, it’s also preventable.
“Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it’s one we can prevent if we act now,” Hawking said. “By denying the evidence for climate change, and pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, Donald Trump will cause avoidable environmental damage to our beautiful planet, endangering the natural world, for us and our children.”
Even though he was celebrating his birthday, Hawking was decidedly pessimistic about the prospects for the future, saying he didn’t see much chance of humans getting better at protecting the planet and ending wars. “I fear evolution has inbuilt greed and aggression to the human genome,” Hawking said. “There is no sign of conflict lessening, and the development of militarized technology and weapons of mass destruction could make that disastrous. The best hope for the survival of the human race might be independent colonies in space.”
Hawking wasn’t alone in criticizing U.S. climate policy this weekend. On Saturday, former President Barack Obama also made a not-so-subtle dig at his successor’s decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement. “In Paris, we came together around the most ambitious agreement in history about climate change, an agreement that even with the temporary absence of American leadership, can still give our children a fighting chance,” Obama said in Jakarta.
In contrast to Hawking’s dire warnings though, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday that Trump’s exit from the global climate accord actually strengthened the deal because it led other countries to reaffirm their commitments. Plus Guterres also said that despite its exit from the deal, the United States could still meet the targets that were laid out in the Paris agreement.
