A friend forwarded an email with a link to an important article.

Paris Disagreement
Donald Trump’s Triumph of Stupidity

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other G-7 leaders did all they could to convince Trump to remain part of the Paris Agreement. But he didn’t listen.

“Read it and weep. Surreal inside account of world leaders trying to talk sense into Trump….”

And weep you will. The article paints a dismal view of the international political future, with the U.S. increasingly isolated and opposed by a large majority of the world’s countries. Germany has stepped out to challenge Trump. Our alliance with Europe has been torn apart. And do keep in mind the national security implications of climate change. These are things that Trump apparently doesn’t care about, or hasn’t thought about.

Merkel’s verdict following Trump’s visit to Europe could hardly be worse. There has never been an open break with America since the end of World War II; the alienation between Germany and the U.S. has never been so large as it is today. When Merkel’s predecessor, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, refused to provide German backing for George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, his rebuff was limited to just one single issue. It was an extreme test of the trans-Atlantic relationship, to be sure, but in contrast to today, it was not a quarrel that called into question commonly held values like free trade, minority rights, press freedoms, the rule of law — and climate policies.

To truly understand the consequences of Trump’s decision, it is important to remember what climate change means for humanity — what is hidden behind the temperature curves and emission-reduction targets.

Climate change means that millions are threatened with starvation because rain has stopped falling in some regions of the planet. It means that sea levels are rising and islands and coastal zones are flooding. It means the melting of the ice caps, more powerful storms, heatwaves, water shortages and deadly epidemics. All of that leads to conflicts over increasingly limited resources, to flight and to migration.