In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Donald Trump didn’t mention a topic many scientists say will be the defining issue of the 21st century: climate change. The closest the more than hour-long speech came to mentioning global warming was a plug for the One Trillion Trees Initiative, a private-public partnership that aims to plant new trees globally.
Instead, in what critics are calling an indirect rebuke of the whole idea of greenhouse gas-induced global warming, Trump touted America’s growing production of greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuels.
While the president’s remarks might not be surprising given his administration’s approach to global warming since he took office in 2017, the absence further alarmed scientists already concerned about a lack of action from global leaders at a time when the Earth just finished its hottest decade in the historical record and the second-warmest year.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says rapid and far-reaching transitions in energy, industry and transportation will be needed in the next 10 years to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
“The U.S. has an obligation to lead on the great challenges we face as a civilization with climate change at the very top, said Michael Mann, a professor of meteorology and director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennslyvania.
Overall, 86% of Democrats, 55% of Republicans and 78% of independents say they want to reduce the effects of global climate change, a Public Agenda/USA TODAY/Ipsos survey published last month found.
Trump has rolled back at least 95 environmental rules since taking office. In November, Trump also began the process of officially withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement. The landmark agreement, signed by 197 nations, allowed countries to set their own goals to curb heat-trapping gas emissions. The Trump administration called it an “unfair economic burden” on the U.S. economy.
Conservatives say Trump is taking a business-minded approach to the nation’s environmental challenges.
But for the 20% or so of Americans who are passionate about climate change and want government action, Trump’s silence was likely a political decision, said Jon Krosnick, who studies American beliefs on climate change at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
By saying nothing, he avoided angering them any more than they are already by his position on the issue. But he also reinforced their impression that this issue is not on his radar screen for future action, he said.
John Cook, a climate communication researcher at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, said Trump displayed a lack of leadership.
To tout planting trees as a solution to climate change without any mention of reducing emissions is like feeding poison to a child and when they get a headache, continuing to poison them while giving them an aspirin, he said.
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