One of the most acclaimed scientists of the present time, Stephen Hawking, has said that American President Donald Trump's opinion and actions regarding climate change could transform planet Earth into a hothouse planet like Venus “with a temperature of 250 degrees and raining sulfuric acid,” according to a report by the Telegraph.
Stephen Hawking's predictions
According to BBC, the 75-year-old professor thinks that Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement could result in adverse consequences for our climate. He further warned that our planet is “close to the tipping point,” after which human-driven climate change will not be reversible.
According to Time, Hawking, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 from Obama, also raised his concerns regarding Trump during last year's Presidential Elections. The author of "A brief history of time" was a signatory to a letter which expressed his apprehension by saying that “the Republican nominee for President has advocated U.S. withdrawal from the Paris accord.”
The Paris Climate Accord is a voluntary international agreement which aims at reducing climate change and global warming across the world. In early June this year, the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, made headlines by announcing that he wanted the U.S. to pull out of the Paris Agreement. Currently, only Nicaragua and Syria are non-signatories of the agreement.
Backlash from World Leaders
Hawking is not the only one to criticise Trump's decision of opting out from this agreement. The administrations of Canada, China and the European Union also thought that this step was very unfortunate. Trump's predecessor President Barack Obama also condemned Trump's move on various occasions.
Although Trump has taken this drastic step, many American leaders at state and local level have shown their desire to uphold the accord locally.
Interestingly, China went ahead and signed an individual climate deal with California. China is playing their part to the best of their abilities as they recently invested $360 billion in green energy projects instead of setting up coal-based power plants.
President Trump is going to Germany next week to attend the G20 summit in Hamburg. According to The Guardian, last week the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that now that the United States had planned to opt out of the accord, they are even more resolved to make it successful.
