As the deadly costs of climate change keep rising, Europe’s top climate official is reckoning with American indifference — and working on his own plans to save the planet.
Chunks of California
are fallinginto the ocean. El Niño is expected tosmash recordsand unleash “chaos” in the coming months. This year’s wildfire season in the United States isalready on trackto be the worst in a decade, not to mention the deadly blazes thathave torn through Europe. And 2026 is expected to be thehottest year on record— and next year is expected to be worse.
But President Donald Trump thinks that it’s all a hoax. The Trump administration has continued to roll back initiatives to battle climate change, even as horrific natural disasters dominate the news cycle. America’s allies are struggling to understand why Trump doesn’t give a damn, given the enormously high stakes and settled
scientific consensus, and wondering how they can convince him that he needs to change coursenow.
“The reality is that the U.S. has pretty much checked out,” European Union Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told
What A Daylast week, while he was in New York for the U.N. General Assembly. “That is — to phrase it diplomatically of course — truly complicated, because the U.S. continues to be the most formidable player on the planet.”
Trump’s anti-climate rampage stretches back a decade now. Wopke cited the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the
Paris Agreementand theannual United Nations climate conference, as well as dozens of other international efforts. Trump’s team alsorolled backthe U.S. government’s ability to regulate polluters, and plans tolower fuel economy standardsthat aimed to tackle emissions.
“Your country checking out completely — and describing climate change in the terms that it does — has truly significant negative ramifications for everyone,” Wopke told me.
**Under Trump, Washington has become the world capital for climate skepticism. ** Can anything persuade him to take the threat seriously?
During our interview, I started to wonder:
*Is this guy just waiting for the Trump administration to leave office?*So, I asked. Wopke didn’t exactly say “no.”
He did, however, offer an argument that he thinks might — just might! — actually convince Trump’s team to listen: Make the climate debate about China.
“The transition [to green energy] is way too important to outsource to the Chinese. We have a huge dependency problem,” Wopke said. “I would think that would unite the U.S. across the political spectrum and Europe.”
China is the
world’s top exporterof clean energy technology. Cheap Chinese electric vehiclesare flooding global markets. The country isinvesting heavilyin renewable energy, including in places like Africa, where the U.S. has scaled back commitments.
While Trump’s team freaks out about the possibility that China could create the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence, it’s losing the race to be the global leader on green energy — which will also shape the future for generations to come.
What does the Trump administration think about all this? “Dumocrats, radical globalist organizations, and climate extremists” are making “bogus” claims that climate change is destroying the planet, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told me. The only things being destroyed, she added, are countries that transitioned away from “reliable, affordable, and secure energy.”
Working with the United States on building green energy tech “is something that we would be very keen to do,” Wopke said. “But unfortunately, we have to conclude that… how shall I phrase it? The appetite is limited.”
** The United States will win the war against **Iran “very soon,” Donald Trump promised. “We’re going to win, as far as I’m concerned, it’s going to be one way or the other,” Trump said in the Oval Office. Does that mean, the U.S. will either win, or he’ll just say it did? Those are the two possible ways, right?
** Donald Trump dined with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei** last night, after the president spent weeks denouncing calls by Amodei and others to slow down artificial intelligence development.
** Is Mark Zuckerberg vying to be Trump’s next dinner guest? **“We believe superintelligence will create significant new opportunities for all people and businesses,” the Meta CEO tweeted, using Trump’s
** Trump asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping if he would** be interested in buying weapons from the United States, according to U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue. The U.S. has long sought to prevent China from getting its hands on U.S. military tech. Trump
** Bo French, a MAGA loyalist who’s running** to be Texas Railroad Commissioner, called for public executions in a tweet last year. “I want public executions,” he wrote in the now-deleted post. In another tweet seemingly referring to Barack Obama, French wrote: “The penalty for treason used to be death. Even for a former president. #HangEmHigh.”
** The Trump administration is using taxpayer dollars** to air an ad from the president’s 2024 campaign, describing it as a “public service announcement.” The message: “Join President Trump’s Fight for America.”
** Linda McMahon was baffled when Trump asked her** to be the Education secretary, she told Politico. In one late night phone call, McMahon recalled telling Trump: “You know that I have not been in the world of education.” He responded: “Well, you did graduate from college, didn’t you?”
** The Senate passed a bill that aims to address** mental health among pilots by providing more funding for medical providers and destigmatizing the issue. The final push to pass the legislation, which had been stalled, may have come from the second season of “The Rehearsal,” a surreal (and delightful) show created by comedian Nathan Fielder that tackles the issue of pilots’ mental health.
** The Malaysian government spent almost $2 million** building a “durian experience center” in an effort to convince people to chow down on their famously smelly fruit. “What we actually hope for now is not to get people who don’t eat durian to start eating durian,” the center’s founder said. “Instead, we hope consumers who are already eating durian from other countries will switch to Malaysian durian.” Well, if you’re ever in D.C., I say, you’ve gotta try the
** How does Ringo Starr stay so active at 86 years old? **He credited his vegetarian diet (loves broccoli), still jokes around (uses a beach background on Zoom), and sometimes lifts “a weight or two.” He told the
** Cyclist Brandon McNulty became the first American** in 33 years to win the men’s road cycling championship over the weekend. His wife almost didn’t make it through security because she didn’t have proper credentials, but she eventually made it through: “I told Brandon: I was either going to be arrested or make it there,” she said.
Scientists recreated the conditions of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s icy moons, in a lab — and discovered that micro-organisms may be able to survive and grow there.
** A Lidl supermarket in Ireland opened a pub** inside the store this summer. “It’s a good excuse to go shopping,” one customer said. “If I forget the toilet roll, I can just come back for another glass of wine on the way.”
