Donald Trump’s Presidency Could Be Disastrous For Climate

There is no telling where Donald Trump stands at an issue. Last week, the president-elects appeared to have accepted that there is "some connectivity" between human activity and climate change. But now, it seems that he is back to his original claim that it is an "expensive hoax" by the Chinese, adding that it is "a bunch of bunk."

The Huffington Post reported that according to Trump's incoming Chief of Staff, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, Trump merely said he is going to have an open mind regarding climate change. However, he is still sticking with his default position that is most of it is "a bunch of bunk."

However, the transcript of his remarks as noted by The New York Times revealed that Trump actually has little knowledge on the issue, yet he still expresses skepticism at the near-universal consensus saying that climate change is real. He shared, "it's a very complex subject. I'm not sure anybody is ever going to really know."

Environmentalists have been warning that the Trump presidency could be disastrous for the world's effort to combat climate change, especially considering that he is going to undo President Barack Obama's policy achievements regarding the issue, such as mandating lower carbon emission from power plants and preserving more public land, even to the point of negotiating the landmark United Nations Paris Climate Change Agreement. Donald Trump noted that combating climate change could "cost our companies," essentially stating that the president-elect is putting business before environment.

In fact, Donald Trump even went on to name climate change denier Myron Ebell as an overseer at the Environmental Protection Agency, and even thought of gutting the said agency altogether. Most of Trump's projects will go to NASA for its Space Science department. Dot Earth reported that Trump's advisors are pushing for a reboot of the Space Agency's missions, focusing not on Earth, but on deep space instead.