This past decade, we have experienced a critically important collision between two disruptive forces, Donald Trump and the mounting impacts of global climate change. Trump has dominated our political system and our society’s attention since 2015.

Soon, in January 2025, Trump will give his second inaugural address.

His speech and oath of office will, of course, be held at the Capitol, whose windows were smashed and whose police were attacked by the MAGA insurrectionists he mobilized.

Historians a hundred years from now may well focus on how Trump’s decade of climate change denial coincided with the critical decade in which the reality of climate change was being experienced firsthand by growing numbers of Americans.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “The 10 warmest years since 1850 have all occurred in the past decade.” And 2023 — the last year for which we have full data — is by far the hottest year. It is almost certain that 2024 will be among the top five hottest on record.

NOAA judges 2015, when Trump began his first successful run for the presidency, as the sixth hottest year on record across Earth.

Trump’s claims during the campaign that climate change simply doesn’t exist were followed in his first administration by cabinet and agency head appointments to tear down the Obama administration Environmental Protection Agency’s policies encouraging a national shift to non-carbon-emitting energy sources — solar, wind, geothermal.

Trump in 2024 emphasized his aim to kill all of Biden’s administration’s efforts to push America toward increased solar and wind power production and the jobs that come from engaging in an economic shift away from coal and oil.

Trump’s “love” of coal might benefit the workers and CEOs of big coal states like West Virginia, Kentucky and Wyoming — but the number of coal workers has dwindled significantly these last years as power plants across the country have shifted to cheaper natural gas, wind and solar power sources.

Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act committed the largest U.S. effort to date to engage the climate disruption security threat. It committed $390 billion over a decade to ramp up purchases of electric vehicles, the building of solar and wind farms and geothermal projects to reduce America’s carbon emissions that push mounting global climate change. Roughly 80% of the funds allocated by Biden’s act have reportedly gone to Republican-dominated congressional districts.

It is most likely that Trump in his return to the presidency will showcase his disdain for Democrats’ efforts to engage the threat of climate change by jerking America out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. He doesn’t care what the future impacts might be. Narcissists are guided by what’s in it for them in the short term. Nations need more forward-looking leaders.

In the recent election, climate change was hardly mentioned by either candidate. Trump didn’t mention it other than to mock it. Vice President Kamala Harris did not lean into talking about it because her advisers could read the polling that this is sadly not yet a top concern of many Americans.

This summer, we saw clear evidence of how climate disruption is not some vague future threat but is now upon us. Phoenix was hammered with an unprecedented heat wave with 113 consecutive days above 100 degrees. In September, Hurricane Helene clobbered North Carolina and other states, killing 234 people and inflicting billions of dollars in damages. Later, Hurricane Milton tore through Florida, taking 35 lives.

NOAA reports that in 2023, the United States suffered 28 natural disasters that each inflicted at least $1 billion in damages, the highest in history. In 2024, natural disasters have killed 418 people.

Climate disruption is baked in. Trump may fancy himself a master at making “deals,” but Earth’s climate system does not deal. It is naive to think that the recent “unprecedented” heat wave records or destruction of forest fires or hurricane seasons are somehow one-offs.

We are now at a critical point in Earth’s history when national and global action is required. Trump, as commander-in-chief, has a serious responsibility to protect our nation. Let him be judged on whether he meets it.

William French grew up in Gaithersburg and is an associate professor of theology at Loyola University Chicago, where he directs the university’s Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies program.