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UK Scientists Say Trump Risking UK National Security

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 27: British Prime Minister Theresa May with U.S. President Donald Trump in The Oval Office at The White House on January 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. British Prime Minister Theresa May is on a two-day visit to the United States and will be the first world leader to meet with President Donald Trump. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Over 100 of the United Kingdom’s top scientists have signed a letter detailing a desperate plea to Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May urging her to challenge her American counterpart, Donald Trump, on climate change, the International Business Times reports.

The letter said Trump’s policies on climate change are putting the U.K.’s national security at risk and was signed by of the country’s top researchers.

“As the United States is the world’s second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, President Trump’s policy of inaction on climate change is putting at risk the UK’s national security and its interests overseas,” the letter said.

“We believe that the UK Government should challenge President Trump about this policy of inaction on climate change. President Macron of France has publicly criticised President Trump’s stance and we believe that the UK should take advantage of its special relationship with the United States to show similar leadership. We do not believe that the best interests of the UK, or the rest of the world, would be best served by attempting to appease President Trump on this issue,” it pointed out to May.

In 2017, claiming it was “very unfair to the U.S.,” Trump pulled out the country from the Paris climate agreement. It is expected this will result in a rapid rise in the U.S. energy sector over the next two years, according to the Independent.

The letter cited the U.K. government’s “National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review.” The document, published in 2015 under former British Prime Minister David Cameron, lists climate change as a major national security threat.

“The UK is already being directly affected by the impacts of climate change: from 2000 onwards, it has experienced its nine warmest years and six of its seven wettest years since records began in 1910,” the letter said.

Drawing an example from the country it shares a special relationship with from across the pond, the letter asked of May to let the U.S. president know it is very much possible to have economic growth and tackle climate change together as the U.K.’s own economic progress “can demonstrate, for instance, that economic growth does not have to be sacrificed in order to tackle climate change.”

The United Kingdom’s real gross domestic product grew by 46 percent while its annual emissions fell 41 percent between 1990 and 2016. The United States for that matter saw it’s GDP only rise by 44 percent in contrast while its emissions actually rose 2.4 percent, something the letter pointed out, Oneworld.org reported.

“Above all, the UK government should make the argument that policy-making about climate change should be based on the best available evidence. Policy-makers should draw on the findings of the global climate research community, and take account of the risks it poses across the world and to future generations. Climate change should not be treated as if it were just as an issue of partisan domestic politics,” the plea concluded.

Meanwhile, according to Guardian, organisers of anti-Trump protests in the U.K. have promised the visiting sitting president of the U.S. a “carnival of resistance,” beginning Thursday with president’s arrival.

Organisers said dozens of groups and thousands of individuals will be protesting across the country and preparations have taken on a “a life of their own.”

Protesters plan to meet the president with a “wall of sound” when he arrives at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Regent Park, London.

Last week, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who has been vocal about his differences with the U.S. president, approved a large helium Trump baby balloon to fly over the city.

The mayor “supports the right to peaceful protest and understands that this can take many different forms,” a statement on Khan’s behalf said.

The balloon depicts Trump as an “angry baby with a fragile ego and tiny hands.” Although it is subject to permission from the National Air Traffic Service, an activist participating in the protest said, “following a huge groundswell of public support for our plan, it looks like City Hall has rediscovered its sense of humour. Trump baby will fly.”

 

 

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