As the obituary of planet Earth is being written, one might find a prominent place for what transpired in a basketball and ice hockey arena in downtown Washington on January 20, 2025. It was here that Donald Trump, with a smug shake of the head and a jubilant twirl of the pen, once again announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate agreement, to the apparent indifference of 20,000 spectators to the fate of the pale blue dot they inhabit. His aide, at Trump’s cue, exclaimed that over a trillion dollars would be saved by exiting the treaty, implying that watching the world burn was a negligible price to pay. This was the moment when it truly sank in. Trump is back. The human wrecking ball who left a trail of chaos and division in his first term has returned with a vengeance. America has chosen this. People will suffer as a result.
