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‘The Stakes Couldn’t Be Any Higher’

Todd Stern, Obama’s right hand at the Paris accords, says this U.S. election is make-or-break for efforts to fight runaway climate change.

By , an associate editor at Foreign Policy, and , an intern at Foreign Policy in 2020.
An orange sky filled with smoke hangs above hiking trails at the Limeridge Open Space in Concord, California, on Sept. 9, after historic wildfires created hazardous air quality conditions in the American West.
An orange sky filled with smoke hangs above hiking trails at the Limeridge Open Space in Concord, California, on Sept. 9, after historic wildfires created hazardous air quality conditions in the American West.
An orange sky filled with smoke hangs above hiking trails at the Limeridge Open Space in Concord, California, on Sept. 9, after historic wildfires created hazardous air quality conditions in the American West. BRITTANY HOSEA-SMALL/AFP via Getty Images

Even as the California wildfires have charred more than 5 million acres, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and sending smoke as far as New York City, U.S. President Donald Trump has continued to dismiss scientific evidence of climate change, bizarrely claiming “it’ll start getting cooler.” Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has taken up the mantle of scientific reason. Only a day after calling Trump a “climate arsonist,” Biden received Scientific American’s first presidential endorsement in its 175-year history.

Chloe Hadavas is an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @Hadavas

Augusta Saraiva was an intern at Foreign Policy in 2020. Twitter: @gutavsaraiva

Read More On China | Climate Change | Donald Trump | Joe Biden | United States

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