Trump puts human species in deep trouble: Chomsky

Prominent American scientist and political activist Noam Chomsky has warned that Donald Trump’s presidency would put humanity in deep trouble for five reasons, ranging from human rights to the environment.

"Trump says all sorts of things," Chomsky said in an interview this week with the AlterNet news service.

"Some of them make sense; some of them are crazy. But the US is an extremely powerful state [and] if Trump means what he's saying, the human species is in very deep trouble."

Having attributed Trump’s rise to the American people’s “perceptions of loss and fear” in his previous interviews, the renowned academic this time focused on the consequences of the real estate magnate’s presidency.

Looming World War

Chomsky noted that the US is viewed as the “greatest threat to world peace by a large margin,” citing American-run polls.

“Right now the spectacle of the Republican primary is frightening people around the world, justifiably," he added, noting that Trump has won most of the contests held so far to select the Republican Party’s presidential nominee.

"To have somebody who's kind of a wild man with his finger on the button that could destroy the world or make decisions with enormous influence is an extremely frightening prospect," Chomsky said.

Surge of torture

Trump has repeatedly made outrageous pledges to bring back waterboarding – simulated drowning of detainees- and a “hell of a lot worse,” while authorizing the military to kill families of suspected terrorists.

"Trump said, 'Fine, let's torture people,'" Chomsky noted. "In fact, the kind of torture that's outlawed by international law and became international scandal—waterboarding—he said 'that's the least of it, let's do more.'"

Last December, a bipartisan report by US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) provided details of torture on detainees between 2001 and 2006 during the so-called war on terror.

Refugees will be ignored

Referring to Trump’s controversial immigration policies, Chomsky said "'Let's keep all Muslims out of the country' [Trump said], Let's build a wall, or rather let's get Mexico to build a wall to prevent people from fleeing into the United States."

"Now, where are they fleeing from?  Mostly from Central America where they're fleeing from the results of our policies," the academic continued.

Continuation of global warming

Chomsky argued that Trump and his party would block any major step to slow down the process, particularly measures to stop production from coal plants.

"Global warming is a hugely significant phenomenon; the effects of global warming are extremely severe. The Republican Party, Trump in particular, will block measures to stop production from coal plants. Trump simply says, 'It's not happening.' That's quite apart from other policies he's advocating," Chomsky explained.

When asked about global warming by Hugh Hewitt last September, Trump said “I’m not a believer in man-made global warming.”

Trump argued that the Earth’s temperature is going up but would start cooling down “at some point.”

Fall of race relations

"The people flocking to Trump's banner are the people for whom the death rate is actually increasing," Chomsky said. "They have seen themselves as having their lives taken away from them, their dignity taken away, the possibilities for the future taken away. That has happened before in the past and the outcomes were not pretty."

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