Yahoo News Here’s what we need to do to survive Donald Trump’s presidency, by economics expert
Economics expert Jeffrey Sachs has described Donald Trump as a ‘sociopath’ in a speech condemning climate change deniers as ‘corrupt’.
Columbia University professor and UN advisor Sachs also explained the steps he felt the rest of the world needed to take to survive Donald Trump’s presidency – including a radical approach to the world’s richest people.
Speaking at the Starmus science conference in Trondheim, Norway, Sachs condemned climate change deniers – claiming they were motivated by ‘greed’.
Sachs said, ‘Climate ‘deniers’ they’re on the take, from the coal oil and gas industry. This is about money and greed. This is not about science.’
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Sachs said that America – and the world – needed a return to the sort of leadership offered by John F Kennedy during the Apollo missions.
If we can go to the moon, and safely back again, in 8 years; we can make the transition to a sustainable society @JeffDSachs #starmus #NTNU pic.twitter.com/jTH3UseKNW
— NTNU (@NTNU) June 21, 2017
‘Our average income is 17,000 dollars – but millions of people are dying in poverty. That’s not an economic problem, it’s a problem in our heads.
‘The estimated cost of decarbonising the world’s energy use is 1% of gross world product – but violence costs us 13% of GWP. Not only that, but the net worth of the top 2,034 individuals is 6% of GWP.
‘Let’s not be bullied by the Trumps,’ Sachs said, ‘I read Forbes magazine once a year to find out who really owns the world [the billionaires list]. Let’s put them to some good work, we can help them find some meaning in their lives.
‘There’s just a few out of them and there’s seven and a half billion of us. We don’t want the useless wars, we want safety, we want sustainability. The world belongs to us.’
Starmus festival, hosted by NTNU, Norway, Trondheim, www.starmus.com. Starmus is the world’s most ambitious science and arts festival with Professor Stephen Hawking as keynote speaker, 11 Nobel laureates and Buzz Aldrin, Oliver Stone, Brian Cox and Neil deGrasse Tyson.
