President Trump has just proved beyond question that he is too stupid to even understand what imbecility sounds like. The media just gave him a chance to explain his climate “ideas” in his own words. His answer was so https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-on-climate-change-people-like-myself-we-have-very-high-levels-of-intelligence-but-were-not-necessarily-such-believers/2018/11/27/722f0184-f27e-11e8-aeea-b85fd44449f5_story.html?utm_term=.e241c00f93e9 (shockingly incoherent) that it makes you fear for life itself, as well it should.
That he framed his answer in the context of his “very high levels of intelligence” is stunning, given the embarrassing torrent of pure gibberish he then disgorged. But this is not simply a game of catching Trump sounding “idiotic,” as he so often does. He is actively pursuing policies that are going to be catastrophic by any measure. And yes it is
worse, far worse, than you think.
How the editors and news directors around the country can read the recent U.N. and U.S. scientific reports (if they do) and not tear open the front page of every edition, print and online, with urgent reporting on what is happening and what we can still do about it, is now past my comprehension. The media should stop asking everybody else questions until they answer this one about their own work: “How do you square your emphasis on climate coverage with the magnitude of the damage we are now virtually certain that climate change will cause?”
But assuming there is a public who, threadbare coverage aside, understands enough and more importantly cares enough about stopping this runaway disaster, this is the issue that must be aimed straight and squarely at the Trump presidency and his Republican quislings. This is the issue where he is doing the greatest long-term damage to the country and the world, and he simply must not get away with it.
Yes, the climate crisis has brought us now — yes, right now, to one of those fulcrum moments of history. “How can one possibly respond to this?” With unyielding, decisive political action.