Here are two facts about the man who will soon be President of the United States, only one of which can be true.
He has said he would abolish the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; that climate change is a Chinese-made hoax; and that he would do everything possible to develop and consume domestic fossil fuels. Trump has also made the case that his primary qualification for the job is his experience in business. If the latter is true, then he would most certainly not follow through on any of those former statements.
The earth, and the U.S. economy, needs a president who understands that going green is the single most effective domestic business plan available to him and that burning more fossil fuels, while rolling back clean air and water regulations, will turn us into Beijing or Delhi.
Right now in India, air pollution has become so life-threatening that Delhi officials closed 1800 schools and are seeing up to 10 percent of the workforce calling in sick. The tourism and construction industries are also hard-hit, impacting businesses and workers alike. Trump has said he would prioritize infrastructure spending, but you can't build new roads and bridges if workers are ill and construction are sites shut down. Similar choking smog is well documented in Beijing, too, where simply breathing the air is the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes per day. Couldn't happen here? Those of us who have lived decades in Los Angeles know that it did.