For this column, we’ll put aside all of President Trump’s character issues, which we have discussed endlessly and focus on two of his policies which endanger life on the planet.

The first could shorten making the Earth uninhabitable while the second could destroy all life instantly.

The first first: The Trump administration has stopped using findings on climate change that threatens the Earth and it is ending the federal government’s authority to control pollution that is burning up the planet.

The administration is removing limits on emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and four other greenhouse gases.

You know the pollution that is causing glaciers to melt, seas to rise, raging fires throughout the world, droughts, and so much more. As I write this, populated islands are being drowned by rising seas.

But this, Trump tells us, is all a “hoax.”

“This is about as big as it gets,” President Trump said in announcing the measures. “We are officially terminating the so-called ‘endangerment finding,’ a disastrous Obama-era policy.”

Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said the action was “the single largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States.”

Zeldin accused Democrats of having launched an “ideological crusade” that “strangled entire sectors of the United States economy.”

Asked at the White House event what he would say to Americans who are concerned about public health and the environment, Trump said he would tell them, “Don’t worry about it, because it has nothing to do with public health. This was all a scam, a giant scam.”

Thus, as the planet moves toward becoming uninhabitable, Trump, Zeldin and the president’s minions did not explain how the economy can prosper under inevitable life-threatening conditions.

Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law group, said, “This is a slap in the face to the millions of Americans who are living through climate disasters and their aftermath. And we will see this administration in court, to ensure that our government does its job to protect us.”

Now, to the second policy — expanding the US nuclear arsenal.

While going almost unnoticed, New START, the major agreement between the US and Russia to control expansion of nuclear weapons, expired in February.

Instead of working to extend the treaty or sign a new one, Trump is signaling he wants to resume nuclear testing and deploy more of these weapons.

This, of course, will ultimately start a new arms race not only among countries who now possess nuclear weapons — nine — but non-nuclear countries will want to join this deadly club.

So, how many nuclear warheads are there in the world? Roughly 15,000 with Russia and the US being one and two with slightly more than 5,000 each.

How many would it take to destroy life on Earth?

Here is what one study reported: “As of 2019, there are 15,000 nuclear weapons on planet Earth. It would take just three nuclear warheads to destroy one of the 4,500 cities on Earth, meaning 13,500 bombs in total, which would leave 1,500.”

Sounds, to me, like we have enough.

Writing under the headline, “Trump Risks Igniting a Nuclear Wildfire,” a The New York Times editorial said:

“The United States has not conducted an explosive nuclear test since 1992. To do so now would be strategic malpractice…the United States has conducted more than 1,000 nuclear tests — about as many as all other nations combined. We possess a trove of data that allows us to maintain our arsenal through computer modeling without detonating a single charge. The technological gains from new tests are negligible compared with the geopolitical damage. It would shatter a global norm and almost certainly trigger reciprocal tests by Russia and China, allowing those countries to improve their own warheads.

“Furthermore, the human cost of the testing era cannot be ignored…the scars left on the people of the Marshall Islands and those in the American West who suffered from cancer and displacement from the radioactive fallout of the 20th century. To reopen the door to explosive testing is to invite a return to environmental damage and the abdication of our morals.”

The editorial concluded:

“In an era of rising tension and decaying treaties, leaving the fate of the world to the judgment of a single person — whoever it is — is a risk no democracy should tolerate.”

Especially, when that person is Donald J. Trump.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)