How Trump Climate Denial Is Catalyzing the World: Q&A

Donald Trump says the overwhelming majority of scientists may be wrong in warning about cataclysmic impacts of global warming. That puts him at odds with much of the world. Trump hasn’t pulled the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, the landmark climate-change accord between almost 200 countries that have committed to cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. But the mere prospect of a U.S. pullback has served to galvanize the global effort on climate change.

By most accounts, it’s one of the toughest decisions the young Trump administration is facing, with senior adviser Stephen Bannon arguing for leaving the deal while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, among those pushing to remain. At his confirmation hearing in the Senate, Tillerson, the former chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corp., said, “It’s important that the U.S. maintains its seat at the table about how to address the threat of climate change, which does require a global response.”