Trump Has a Critical Choice to Make on Climate Change

Throughout his brief tenure as leader of the free world, Trump has demonstrated a fairly tenuous grasp on what is and isn’t real. From declaring every major news outlet “fake news” to hiring a guy whose full-time job is finding positive stories about Trump to make the big man feel better, Trump is very selective in what he chooses to believe.

Trump’s selective belief extends to the realities of climate change, as evidenced by his opting out of the Paris Accords earlier this summer. So skeptical is Trump of humanity’s negative impact on the environment that, according to a report from The Guardian, staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been told to avoid using the term “climate change” and substitute in the euphemism “weather extremes,” instead. And as The NYT points out, Trump is going to have a hard time ignoring climate change for much longer.

A group of government scientists is expected to soon release a report detailing the negative consequences of continuing to ignore climate change. While the White House is currently reviewing the findings, there are already fears that Trump will try and suppress the report as it won’t jive with his support base (though that base is shrinking daily). The report will assert that “evidence for a changing climate abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans,” which will force Trump into a difficult position. Will he side with the facts, or choose his substantial gut and continue to ignore truths that are inconvenient to him and his nationalist message?

Unfortunately, we probably already know the answer.