It’s not just scientists who might look askance at Donald Trump’s climate denial if he were president. According to a new report from the Sierra Club, Trump would be the only national leader in the world to completely reject climate science.
The environmental organization gathered quotes from all 195 heads of state that at least partially acknowledge the threat of climate change. Even former climate science deniers are included, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose quote comes from his appearance at the U.N. Climate Conference in Paris last year. (Of course, while Putin and the leaders of countries such as Saudi Arabia acknowledge climate change as a problem, they still stand in the way of strong enough action to fight it.)
By contrast, Trump, the report notes, has called climate change a “hoax,” “mythical,” “nonexistent,” a “con job,” and “bullshit.” Trump has pledged to repeal President Obama’s carbon pollution regulations and to “renegotiate” or completely cancel the agreement struck in Paris.
Before he got involved in Republican politics, Trump was not a climate denier — at least not consistently. As Grist recently reported, in 2009 Trump signed an open letter from business leaders calling for strong U.S. action against climate change. But unless he un-flips his flop, a President Trump would stand alone on the world stage.
