To Meet China’s Challenge, the U.S. Has to Fight Climate Change
The Trump administration’s head-in-the-sand approach on global warming undermines the geopolitical advances it’s making on Beijing.
Choking on an economic miracle.
Photographer: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images
The two greatest challenges for American statecraft in the 21st century are becoming more severe - and seemingly pulling the U.S. in opposing directions.
Relations with China are deteriorating by the day, presaging a prolonged competition over the shape of global order. Meanwhile, the worsening effects of climate change — demonstrated by the shocking melting of ice in Greenland this summer — are invoking the specter of ecological catastrophe. And while dealing with the changing climate will undoubtedly require cooperation between Beijing and Washington - the world's two largest emitters of greenhouse gases -winning the geopolitical struggle with China will require the U.S. to take a harder-edged, more competitive approach.