The Most Consequential Decision of the Decade

This is the time when we commonly look back over the year, or decade, or century, and pronounce our choice of the most significant event or events. There are endless events to choose and a multitude of rationals for our different choices. So many in fact I weary of making the attempt. I do, however, take an interest in choices made by others, at least others I respect. And this year I'm taken by a choice of David Smith, the Guardian's  Washington DC bureau chief.

Mr. Smith suggests in his article "The decade that shook America" that Trump's decision to deny climate science and withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accords "may prove the most consequential decision of the decade." I'm inclined to agree.

This may not seem as consequential a decision as the hands-down winner of the previous decade—George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq—but it could have even more profound and longer-lasting effects. One might ask, however, how do you top a decision that destroyed a country, further destabilized the world's most unstable region and unleashed ISIS?

We might answer: because of its immense affect on humanity's greatest threat, indeed humanity's greatest threat of all time—global warming. On a country basis, China has edged out the U.S. as the world's top polluter, but countries don't pollute, people do. And the average American produces well over twice the emissions of the average Chinese. Indeed, Americans, along with Australians and Canadians, are the top emitters of the developed countries.

Considering Americans' pathetic pollution performance and considering also that the U.S. is the world's most powerful and most influential nation, Trump's decision does serious damage to global climate responsibility. By withdrawing from the accords, the U.S. not only illustrates its own malfeasance but sets a powerful example for every other country that is tempted to become a slacker, and there is a long list of those.

So in two consecutive decades, we have the most consequential decision in each made by an American president, both decisions frightfully bad and made by incompetents. What, I wonder, will the U.S. presidency have in store for us in the '20s.