I am just catching up the Netflix drama, The Crown and last night I watched episode four entitled “Act of God”. The parallels between this piece of English history and the contemporary political mess we face in the USA were sharp and unnerving. The episode was set during the famous London smog of 1952 when a brief but deadly “smog” emitted from the coal factories of London combined with the English fog into a deadly haze that wiped out visibility on the streets and resulted in thousands of deaths from traffic accidents and respiratory illnesses.

Winston Churchill, brilliantly portrayed by John Lithgow, refuses to deal with the dilemma, angrily pounding his fists and calling it all a fuss about “weather” and an “Act of God”. Who does this remind us of? Donald Trump of course, with his ignorant statements on global warming. In The Crown, the queen is called upon to discipline and possibly remove her prime minister as “unfit to serve” until he finally responds appropriately and enacts The Clean Air Act.

Donald Trump has not only denied the reality of global warming, he has also threatened to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Accord. Who will call our national leader to task as we and the rest of world face the specter of global warming? We don’t have a queen but we have our own collective conscience and we must not fail to act to stop his brazen disregard for the future of our world. There is too much to lose.