Until a few days ago, the majority of the current Trump administration actions and policies affected mostly US citizens. Last week’s Middle East and Europe trip was troubling for other reasons, such as the “tremendous” arms sale to Saudi Arabia, a country really as far away from the democratic ideals of the USA Founding Fathers as possible (apparently the millions of jobs promised in the campaign will be mostly created within the military-industrial complex) or the de facto adoption of an isolationist policy that threatens to destroy 70 years worth of collaborative work between the European countries and the USA in order to make the world a better place for all..

But the announcement on June 1st that the US would withdraw from the Paris agreement on global warming directly affects every person in the world and their descendants. So for me, Trump’s agenda has now become a personal issue.

As a father of two wonderful kids, and as every parent in the world, I’d like that in the future they could enjoy a better world than the one we live in today. And I feel obliged to take a stand against anything or anybody whose actions work against this desire.

Now, let’s face the facts: global warming is THE real life, actual and serious problem that our world is facing. Every climate scientist worth of its reputation agrees on this point. 195 countries agree on this point. Even though there is not a consensus on its magnitude of its effects and whether we can still minimize those effects. But the basics behind global warming are well past any reasonable doubt, even for such a conservative entity as the US Department of Defense, and that organization is by definition as conservative as you can get.

Global warming denial, by all standards, is a fringe idea. And fringe ideas have a particular interest to a portion of the US people. There is a percentage of that country’s population that has a soft spot for conspiracy theories, whether related to Area 51 events, alien abductions, evolution denial, creationism, vaccine induced diseases, survivalist groups, gun possession and a whole bunch of crappy stuff most suited for an X-Files episode than for the real world. A lot has been written about the portion of USA’s citizens that manifest distrust towards science, but in my opinion it seems to be linked to education-related problems. There is no other place in the world where creationism can battle for a place in formal education alongside the theory of evolution. Taking these facts into account, one can begin to understand what happened in the past US presidential elections.

If that country’s election results had effects limited to its own population, an outsider could just relax and be a witness of the current administration decay.

After all the fact that the leader of the country with the current largest economy of the world (and I say current because it seems that in a matter of fewer than 5 years China will overtake that place) is being governed by a character that made up his life as real estate developer, casino administrator and as a reality show star (whose catchy phrase was “you are fired”) is promising to bring back millions of jobs to that country is , to say the least, somewhat ironic.

But the additional issue; that this character has the power to put next generations of humans in danger; just makes me go bonkers.

In a world that is quickly changing from an oil-driven economy to an energy matrix that involves bio-fuels, solar and wind energy, clean gas-fueled thermal power generation plants and efficient smart grid management, there is no rational reason to go back to coal. Unless you are deep into steampunk or do not have a minimum understanding of energy conversion efficiency.

Sure, this will save a few jobs, something around 76.000 jobs. But these are really awful ones.

Coal mining is a dangerous business, both for humans and for the environment. Just check the facts: coal miners eventually suffer from a wide array of respiratory diseases that range from emphysema to pulmonary cancer. And coal mines are intrinsically dangerous: in fact, the term firedamp was originated in this environment to describe areas with presence of grisu gas, which is common in subterranean coal deposits. Grisu gas is a deadly mixture of methane, ethane and carbon dioxide. If it fails to suffocate you then it’s very likely to violently explode and kill you anyway. This is not the kind of job that a 21st-century president, businessman or politician would like to promote.

What about retraining those miners for other tasks? To think that the only job they can perform is coal mining shows a serious disrespect of human ingenuity.

Additionally, coal-fueled power plants are not efficient and are serious pollutant generators. And they are simply too expensive to run, that´s why that technology is being abandoned by every country as fast as they can.

So, why it is necessary to mess up the world to save that decaying industry?

Most analysts suggest that giving up clean technologies will not save jobs in the US, but in fact will leave that country out of the current fourth industrial revolution.

A recent study published by theEnvironmental Defense Fund clearly shows that the alternative energy industry employs 2.2 million persons in the US. This industry is creating jobs a a rate 12 times faster than the traditional energy generation business. And these are better paid jobs in safe and friendly environments.

Trump’s decision threatens to isolate the US from the world’s community, and leaves that country out of its “moral leader of the free world” position that assumed after WWII. Others will fill this void.

After his announcement, full of conspiracy denounces against “others” cooperating to take advantage of his country, some of the most economically significant states quickly declared that they would not follow the current administration agenda: California, Washington, New York have pledged against leaving the Paris agreement. As well as several cities (including Pittsburgh, a city mentioned in Trump’s withdrawal speech), more than 1000 US companies and several influential entrepreneurs. Even Exxon (the company behind the largest oil spill in history) declared to be against the withdrawal.

I live in a country that basically isolated itself from the world for a decade due to similar populist arguments. The vast effects of that policy in the country’s infrastructure, educational system, and economic environment will have consequences that will take years to overcome. And we are talking about Argentina, a country in the periphery of the world’s economy. Just imagine the effects of that kind of policy on the US.

As Walter Benjamin said, “history is an angel, being blown backward into the future” (a phrase brilliantly quoted in a Laurie Anderson song). By that, he meant that we humans can analyze history but can not change it. We are prisoners from our own past choices.

There is something wrong in the system when a single individual, invested with the power of the president of the USA, can take a decision that affects the whole planet and justify this act with an “America First” populist rhetoric.

My first objections to that motto is that America is not the USA, is the whole continent. Even saying North America is inadequate, because that term includes both Canada and Mexico, no matter how much that would disgust Mr. Trump.

Secondly, Trump was elected by 62 million individuals that live in the USA. His decisions have consequences on the whole planet, which has a population of 7.5 billion. A simple calculation will tell you that its policies are supported by 0,82% of the world population.

The fact that such important decisions, which could affect global warming or trade for the near future, are dependent on the political decision of less than 1% of the world population seems plainly wrong.

I have no easy answers to this dilemma, but I’ll quote Isaac Asimov for a closing: “Everybody has a mission in this world, and this can even be to serve as a bad example”.

Isaac Asimov’s writing quality may be something to discuss, but his insight on humanity is beyond doubt. Let’s hope Walter Benjamin’s angel will be able to look at these times without regrets about what could have been done or what could have been avoided in the time we had the chance to make a difference in this planet destiny.

PS.: After writing this lines I watched France’s President Macron speech addressed to the US population. It made me remember the famous “we will never surrender” speech made by Winston Churchill after Dunkirk. Maybe this time Europe will come to help the US population stand against insanity.

In 1935, Sinclair Lewis wrote a novel titled “It Can’t happen here”. Maybe it is time to remember who Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip was.