'Cockroaches': NYT's Krugman puts Trump and rich pals on blast for destroying the planet in search of increased profits

In a scathing column for the New York Times, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman ripped into President Donald Trump and his rich enablers for greedily lining their pockets as they destroy the planet.

At issue, Krugman explains, is their insistence that climate change is a myth -- which directly contradicts the scientific community -- because they are invested in old energy technologies.

"Climate change is a hoax. Climate change is happening, but it’s not man-made. Climate change is man-made, but doing anything about it would destroy jobs and kill economic growth. These are the stages of climate denial," Krugman began

"The Trump administration and its allies — put on the defensive by yet another deadly climate change-enhanced hurricane and an ominous United Nations report — have been making all of these bad arguments over the past few days<" he continued. "I’d say it was a shocking spectacle, except that it’s hard to get shocked these days. But it was a reminder that we’re now ruled by people who are willing to endanger civilization for the sake of political expediency, not to mention increased profits for their fossil-fuel friends."

According to Krugman, these people are no better than vermin.

"About those cockroaches: Details aside, the very multiplicity of climate-denial arguments — the deniers’ story keeps changing, but the bottom line that we should do nothing remains the same — is a sign that the opponents of climate action are arguing in bad faith," he explained. "They aren’t seriously trying to engage with the reality of climate change or the economics of reduced emissions; their goal is to keep polluters free to pollute as long as possible, and they’ll grab onto anything serving that goal."

Krugman then detailed some of the realities of climate change, emphasizing the deniers claims are increasingly being disproven before linking it back to the continuing corruption condoned by the White House.

"In reality, of course, climate denial has never had much to do with either logic or evidence; as I said, deniers are clearly arguing in bad faith. They don’t really believe what they’re saying. They’re just looking for excuses that will let people like the Koch brothers keep making money," Krugman wrote, before concluding, "One way to think about what’s happening here is that it’s the ultimate example of Trumpian corruption. We have good reason to believe that Trump and his associates are selling out America for the sake of personal gain. When it comes to climate, however, they aren’t just selling out America; they’re selling out the whole world."

You can read the whole piece here.