Stephen Hawkings dire warning about what Trumps policies will do to the Earth

[babylonsister]

https://thinkprogress.org/stephen-hawking-warned-us-about-climate-change-7a6d40ab37c7/

Stephen Hawking’s dire warning about what Trump’s policies will do to the Earth
In his final years, the iconic scientist lent his voice to the fight against catastrophic climate change.
Joe Romm
Mar 14, 2018, 12:56 pm

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In recent years, Hawking used his status as a legendary scientist to warn the public about the dangers posed by a number of catastrophic threats to humanity, particularly global climate change.

In 2016, he warned that climate change was the gravest threat facing humanity. That September he also joined 377 members of the National Academy of Sciences in signing an open letter that began, “Human-caused climate change is not a belief, a hoax, or a conspiracy. It is a physical reality.”

The letter warned about a Trump victory, explaining that “it is of great concern that the Republican nominee for President has advocated U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Accord” and that “such a decision would make it far more difficult to develop effective global strategies for mitigating and adapting to climate change.”

In July 2017, Hawking told the BBC that President Trump’s climate policies could permanently destroy the Earth’s livable climate.

“We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible,” he explained. “Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of 250º” Celsius (482°F).

While “climate change is one of the great dangers we face,” the good news, Hawking noted, is that “it’s one we can prevent if we act now.” But the tragedy is that “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.”

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Hawking became famous for his study of the past, and his 1998 book, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes,” which has sold more than 10 million copies. But it’s his warnings about the future we most need to heed today.