Stephen Hawking Says Trump's Climate Change Denial Could 'Push Earth Over the Brink'

Stephen Hawking has been a longtime critic of President Trump. In May, the revered physicist referred to Trump as a “demagogue” who appealed to “the lowest common denominator.” Of particular concern to Hawking is Trump’s policy on climate change (or lack thereof).

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Hawking unleashed a scathing indictment of Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. “We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible,” Hawking said. “Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulphuric acid.”

Hawking went quite a bit further with his condemnation. “Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it’s one we can prevent if we act now,” he added. “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.”

Despite Ivanka Trump’s best efforts, Trump seems hellbent on ignoring the general consensus that earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Nor is his Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Scott Pruitt, doing much protecting of the environment either.

Not only is Pruitt a climate change denier, he’s willfully assisting the companies responsible for global warming’s rapid acceleration. According to a report from The New York Times, Pruitt has essentially handed over the reins of the EPA to lobbyists and lawyers who have received millions in donations from petroleum giants (like Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries). Pruitt has also rolled back 30 environmental rules introduced by previous administrations, the most in EPA history.

Hawking’s outlook on earth’s shelf life is less than ideal for those of us who will remain once our aging president is finished instructing the EPA to explore drilling in every possible crevasse of America. Though, Hawking’s analysis of human nature might also prove to be a forewarning.

“I fear evolution has inbuilt greed and aggression to the human genome,” Hawking told the BBC. “There is no sign of conflict lessening, and the development of militarized technology and weapons of mass destruction could make that disastrous.”