Will President Donald Trump believe in climate change after the devastating Hurricane Harvey?

US President Donald Trump doesn't believe in climate change. In a zest to show his political stand, Trump even went to the extent of pulling out his country of the Paris climate pact earlier this year suggesting that it was not in favour of the American national interest.

For Trump, a businessman, climate change is more of a fictitious thing. He feels countries like China are benefiting economically because of the 'conspiracy' called climate change and hence decided to dissociate his country from the fight for the environment.

And now, when Hurricane Harvey has taken a severe toll on Texas and the president was surprised by the unprecedented rainfall and flooding, a section of the US news media criticised him.

Noah S Diffenbaugh, an earth system professor at Stanford, said in a New York Times op-ed that Trump shouldn't have been surprised by the disaster for climate science has shown time and again that global warming has raised the odds of extreme rain and flooding. He said ignoring the facts only puts ourself at the disadvantage by crippling our ability to get ready for extreme weather conditions that would jeopardise lives and property in America.

In the piece, Professor Diffenbaugh said it is established now that global warming is already leading to several types of extremes both in the US and elsewhere and self-denial will only leave use more vulnerable.

But these facts are unlikely to affect Trump since the man is more a businessman than a statesman and wants to spare more thought for commercial profits than actually think about the welfare of the planet. Scientific understanding of the problem and initiating decision-making steps to back them is what the Trump administration is expected to do.

But the current presidency has decided to ignore the essential duty and even roll back regulations, including considering climate change when setting up infrastructure, something the previous Barack Obama administration had thought about.

Trump is doing enough disservice to the idea of taking guard against climate change and the threats that are associated with it just because he wants to prove a political point of eclipsing the legacy of his predecessor. For millions of Americans, this is a suicidal step which is being taken by their leader in the White House. If Trump doesn't see the reality even after the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, his country and its people are in for some serious trouble.