Several recent news items caught my attention, and no, I am not referring to Trump’s triumph of vanity in Gaza or his gestapo-like dispatching of troops to democratic-run cities. I am talking about a new report on the breaching of climate ‘tipping points’ and the failure of a global conference on limiting plastic pollution, followed by a report on industry executives who travelled to China and were blown away by its innovation and mastery in robotics, electric vehicles and renewable energy.
Trump is absolutely obsessed with opposing and destroying any of his predecessors’ accomplishments regarding climate change and renewable energy. He has declared climate change a hoax perpetuated by ‘bad’ and ‘dumb’ people, and in his uniquely idiotic way, dismissed electric cars because they ‘don’t work in the cold’. He has ordered an end to wind farm development, charging station rollouts and all research associated with renewable energy and global warming. No doubt he welcomed the collapse of the plastics conference as well.
Future psychologists will be challenged to catalog the full list of Trump’s pathological traits, but the toxic mix of envy, narcissism, resentment and vengeance that drives his decision-making will be at the top of the list. So deeply embedded is this psychosis that he has embraced every right-wing conspiracy theory and anti-science quackery that comes his way. He has appointed charlatans and idiots to cabinet positions, with their only qualification being total obeisance to his will.
What does this mean for the future of our country? We will soon be years behind in the development of renewable energy and electric vehicles. We will have abandoned our leadership in international efforts to address climate change and other planet-threatening trends such as ocean acidification, plastic pollution, landscape and forest damage, and the loss of lifeforms and biodiversity. We will have crippled our scientific research community and hamstrung our universities. We will have irrevocably destroyed the trust of our most loyal allies. We will also have seriously delayed efforts to transition away from fossil fuels and obtain a more sustainable balance of energy.
No empire lasts forever, and we have had the extraordinarily good fortune to be in a dominant economic and military position for over a hundred years. But pride goeth before a fall, and there is no more extreme case of pride than the current president and his administration. Trump will go down in history as the president who paved the way for the great period of decline of the United States, and the ascendance of China.
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