The photo image of Professor Stephen Hawking and the article segment below are from the BBC.
The leaders of other countries were shocked when Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement on global climate change. For them, it was a clear signal that the United States can no longer be trusted to keep its word.
Trump seems to believe in his feverish imagination that 95% to 97% of the world's scientists have joined together in a giant hoax designed to hurt American corporations. Either that, or he thinks that short-term corporate profits are more important than saving the planet for our descendants.
Professor Stephen Hawking, on the occasion of his 75th birthday, spoke with the BBC -- and he had some very harsh words for Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. He believes Trump is putting the entire planet in serious danger.
Here is some of the BBC's report on the interview with Hawking:
His main concern during his latest interview was the future of our species. A particular worry was President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement to reduce CO2 levels. What is in the Paris climate agreement? "We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible. 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," he told BBC News. "Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it's one we can prevent if we act now. 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." The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also highlights the potential risk of hitting climate tipping points as temperatures increase - though there are gaps in our knowledge of this topic. In its Fifth Assessment Report, the IPCC authors wrote: "The precise levels of climate change sufficient to trigger tipping points (thresholds for abrupt and irreversible change) remain uncertain, but the risk associated with crossing multiple tipping points in the Earth system or in interlinked human and natural systems increases with rising temperature." When asked whether he felt we would ever solve our environmental problems and resolve human conflicts, Prof Hawking was pessimistic, saying that he thought our days on Earth were numbered. "I fear evolution has inbuilt greed and aggression to the human genome. There is no sign of conflict lessening, and the development of militarised 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."
