Trump risks 'turning Earth into Venus' with 250 degree temperature: Hawking

World-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking says US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord could lead to a "tipping point" that "turns Earth into Venus."

Hawking, an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and the author of 'A Brief History of Time,' made the remarks in an interview with BBC on Sunday to mark his 75th birthday.

"We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible,” he warned. "Trump's action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulphuric acid."

Due to runaway greenhouse effect, the hothouse planet Venus has reached such a high temperature that lead would melt on its surface. Greenhouse effect is a phenomenon in which the atmosphere of a planet traps radiation emitted by its sun, caused by gases such as carbon dioxide, and methane.

"Climate change is one of the great dangers we face and it's one we can prevent if we act now,” Hawking stated.  

"By denying the evidence for climate change, and pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, Donald Trump will cause avoidable environmental damage to our beautiful planet, endangering the natural world, for us and our children,” the physicist noted.

Trump has announced that he will pull the United States out of the 2015 global agreement to fight climate change, asserting US withdrawal "represents a reassertion of American sovereignty."

"In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord," Trump said at a White House ceremony last month.

The move, which fulfills a campaign promise made just over a year ago, has drawn rebuke from Democrats at home and world leaders who had pressed Trump not to abandon the 197-nation accord.

Trump considers climate change a hoax

Trump had vowed during the election campaign to "cancel" the Paris agreement within 100 days of becoming president on January 20 in order to bolster the US oil and coal giant, which bankrolled his campaign.

Trump has labeled climate change a hoax, defying widening international support for the Paris Agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. He has argued that the concept of global warming has been “created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.”

Environmental groups have long argued against spending billions of dollars to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants when the same funds could help expedite the transition to wind and solar power.

The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4, 2016 and has been signed by 197 countries. 135 of them have now formally ratified the agreement. They represent more than 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The Paris Agreement seeks to avert climate change by limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures by 2050. It also sets out a goal of reaching a limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius, if possible.

The adopted text acknowledges that the risks of climate change are much more serious than previously thought. The deal is to take effect in 2020.

‘Trump committed to destroying planet’

Leading American political analyst and philosopher Noam Chomsky has also said that the Trump administration is profoundly committed to destroying planet Earth.

In a recent interview with Democracy Now!, Chomsky repeated the remarks he made in November last year about Trump’s Republican Party, calling it the most “dangerous organization in human history.”

Chomsky said the Trump administration had shown total disregard for the future of the earth and is determined to dismantle the system in place to tackle climate change.

He said the administration is “systematically” destroying governmental institutions, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, for the sake of “profits and power.”

In a previous interview with Democracy Now! Chomsky had called the possibility of a nuclear war and global warming the greatest threats to mankind’s existence.

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