The Age of Trump

Climate change is an inconvenient footnote in Donald Trump's historical battle for global supremacy

- SUNITA NARAIN

o, Donald Trump did the expected. I watched from millions of miles away in the dead of the night, Trump signing with great flourish the executive order to take his country out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. "We will save trillions," he said to the cheering red cap-adorned crowds. What does this mean for the global fight against climate change?

For many reasons, the time is different from Trump 1.0 in 2017. One, he is much more belligerent against all things green. I will explain this later. It is also a time when climate change catastrophe is showing up everywhere. On the day of his swearing-in, the entire event had to be moved inside because of an intense cold wave. The cold blast has to do with the fact that because of climate change, the Polar vortex—winds that circulate over the Arctic—has become more unstable and has hit the west coast of the U.S. Even as Trump takes office, the homes of the rich and famous in Los Angeles have been burnt to the ground with deadly fires, driven by ferocious winds.