Donald Trump makes top Republican fear environmental future

"I worry terribly for the future of my family and families round the world"

A leading US Republican says she fears for the future of her seven grandchildren with Donald Trump in the White House. 

Christine Todd Whitman, head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under George W Bush, accused Mr Trump of ignoring compelling science. And she warned that his threat to scrap climate protection policies puts the world's future at risk.

Donald Trump's environmental messages have troubled environmental activists

Trump supporters say rules on climate and energy are stifling business. But Ms Todd Whitman says the US must find ways of promoting business without unduly harming the planet.


Details of Mr Trump's climate policy are not yet clear, but his team have talked about boosting coal, opening new oil pipelines, and allowing mining on public wilderness or drilling in the Arctic.

On the political side, they have suggested quitting the global climate deal, scrapping President Obama's clean power plan, and dismantling the US energy department along with the EPA itself.

Trump card

Ms Todd Whitman was interviewed on Trump's likely policies for a documentary - Climate Change: the Trump Card - which airs on BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 on Tuesday.

She said: "I find it very worrisome that there seems to be a disdain for the science on protecting the environment. "I worry terribly for the future of my family and families round the world because Mother Nature has never observed geopolitical boundaries and what one country does really does affect another country.

"To walk away from something where you have 97% of scientists saying this is occurring and people have an impact on it … it's gotten to the point where we've got to try to slow it down if we're going to survive it."

She argued that Mr Trump was betraying a Republican heritage of conservation. George Bush Snr signed the UN Framework Convention in Rio in 1992. Abraham Lincoln, she remarked, was the first president to protect public land and Richard Nixon established the EPA.

"Conservation is inherently conservative," she said. "I hope to be proven wrong by Mr Trump but you have so many multi-millionaires from the oil industry in his Cabinet.

"We want to have power and be energy independent but the problem is doing it in a balanced way to protect health and the environment. But from Trump's view it doesn't seem to enter the equation."