Not one to waste an opportunity, France’s president Emmanuel Macron has taken advantage of President Donald Trump’s denial of climate change by luring 13 of America’s top scientists to France.
Under a program called “Make our Planet Great Again” — notice the spin on Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign slogan — Macron has offered the climate scientists multi-million dollar grants to work in France for the rest of President Trump’s term.
Macron announced the grants right after Mr. Trump pulled out of the Paris climate accord. Of the more than 5,000 who pursued the funding, most were from the United States. The field was narrowed to 18 grantees.
Winner Camille Parmesan, who teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, will use the funding to study how climate change affects wildlife.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Parmesan said that under the Trump administration she feels she needs to hide her work.
Winning this grant, she said, “gave me such a psychological boost, … to have the head of state saying I value what you do.”
NO DOUBT, U.S. scientists of all stripes are in a funk these days.
A recent study by 13 U.S. federal agencies reported climate change is advancing more rapidly than ever and that humans have caused more than 90 percent of it, mostly from the release of carbon dioxide through the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.
Of all the world, the United States is the biggest carbon polluter.
According to the study, suitably titled the “Climate Science Special Report,” current temperatures are the warmest in the history of modern civilization. And unless we change our ways, the future is “unambiguous,” according to the report — things will only get worse.
Meanwhile, our nation’s Energy secretary, Rick Perry, Environmental Protection Agency director Scott Pruitt, and President Trump, dispute the exhaustive findings, are working to turn back regulations that curb harmful emissions and giving the go ahead to more fossil-fuel production.
IN THE 2015 Paris Accord, the United States agreed to reduce emissions by 26 percent by 2025.
Despite the current administration’s stance, Americans are making great strides to meeting this goal by individually and collectively adopting renewable energy, phasing out coal-fired power plants, driving fuel-efficient cars and trucks and in myriad other ways.
We’ve all learned a lot about harmful practices.
It would be a travesty if the interests of a few were allowed to violate the sanctity of our planet.
— Susan Lynn
