Gary Johnson won't fight climate change because the sun is going to explode

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson talks during an interview at the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday, June 30, 2016 in San Francisco. Johnson is the former governor of New Mexico. Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson talks during an interview at the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday, June 30, 2016 in San Francisco. Johnson is the former governor of New Mexico. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Gary Johnson won't fight climate change because the sun is going to explode 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

One thing you got to give Gary Johnson credit for, he takes the long view.

The geographically challenged Libertarian candidate for president — who made headlines when he asked "What is Aleppo?" during an interview Sept. 8 — said in 2011 there's no sense spending trillions of dollars to battle climate change.

Why not? Well, because sun is going to grow into a huge fireball, incinerating the Earth in a global warming that no one will be able to deny.

He's right, of course. The sun will swell up as big as the Earth's orbit as it approaches the end of its natural lifespan as a red giant. Anyone still on the planet when that happens will one crispy critter.

The thing is, this fiery apocalypse won't occur for another 4 billion to 4-1/2 billion years. And since humankind has only been around for about 200,000 years, we still have a ways to go.

During the 2011 speech surfaced Tuesday by Mother Jones, Johnson conceded that humans are making the planet warmer in the short term, but he doesn't think it's worth spending vast amounts of money to combat it.

In August, he told the Los Angeles Times that he was "open" to a revenue-neutral tax on carbon emissions, but after a backlash from the right, he has since retreated from that position.

He now says he doubts that government policy can address climate issues.