Mark Lynas is a writer on climate change, and visiting fellow at the Alliance for Science at Cornell University. The opinions in this article belong to the author.

(CNN) Withdrawing from the Paris climate accord is about the only predictable -- even rational -- move that President Trump has made since taking office.

Following embarrassing reversals on the Mexican wall, the Muslim immigration ban and other signature policies, he sees rejecting accepted orthodoxy on climate change as an easy deliverable to please his populist base.

Too bad it fries the planet. He was elected on this pledge, and he plans to deliver.

Canceling the Paris deal is a classic post-truth policy. Based on the outright denial of overwhelming scientific reality -- and telegraphed in suspense-building gameshow style this week via Twitter and conflicting media teasers -- it is Trump at his most callous, ignorant and attention-seeking.

As a former reality TV star, Trump cares about how things look, not how they really are. Torpedoing climate efforts is the ultimate "up yours" to liberals -- after all, that's the point. The aim is symbolic, but faced with higher carbon emissions and consequent disastrous global warming, our children may not see it that way.

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