37 Comments
User's avatar
Sten Linnander's avatar

Trump will come and go, but climate change will only come; it won't go away during the lifetime of anyone who is alive now.

Expand full comment
Denis Mollison's avatar

"Collapsing birthrates" are actually needed for a sustainable planet.

Expand full comment
Nancy Blake's avatar

Absolutely!

Expand full comment
Peter Neale's avatar

Well, yes, but outside of Europe they're not collapsing. World's population has more than doubled in my lifetime (I'm 70).

Expand full comment
John's avatar

I paused because it’s a very sobering list of options.

Expand full comment
David Stobie's avatar

What is it that Republicans see in the lying, draft dodging, tax dodging, woman raping, child abusing, racist imbecile that we don't?

Expand full comment
paul teare's avatar

Because despite being all those things and more, 70m Americans hear themselves in his rhetoric. And Biden hasnt protected their living standards. Same with Sunak, thats why he will loose too.

Expand full comment
Rod Evans's avatar

Alarming to see that only 32% believed that climate change is the greatest threat - to the West, yes, but to North, South and East too. If you can't get your head round the idea of the world experiencing a succession of hottest months ever, and what that means for all our futures, then you're in la la land, I fear.

Expand full comment
Peter Neale's avatar

I cannot believe that anybody with half a brain could possibly think that Climate Change wouldn't be top of the list, any list, regardless of what the other choices were. THINK ABOUT IT!

Expand full comment
Roger Paxton's avatar

Climate change (and the associated ecological destruction) is a mortal threat to many other species as well as humans and seems almost impossible to stop now.

Expand full comment
treehill's avatar

The West is its own worst enemy since it doesn't want to work with others but rather control them through sanctions and war, or threats thereof. Incompetent leadership is the greatest threat to the Western world.

Expand full comment
Nancy Blake's avatar

Trump’s return would facilitate all the rest, except possibly falling birth rate. Since climate change is brought on by the ever-increasing numbers of human beings, a falling birth rate is an absolute necessity if we are to have any hope at all. Resources are limited, contrary to popular belief.

Expand full comment
John Woods's avatar

Trumps return and Climate Change we can and are dealing with. War with either China or Russia would be catastrophic, even if it only lasted a week.

Expand full comment
Rosalie Kingwill's avatar

What about "The West's" threat to world peace? Why is this question posed as a "threat to the West"? Why not to "world peace"?

Expand full comment
At Midnight, All the Agents...'s avatar

Democratic decline. Which is not exclusively 'Trump' or 'populism', it's much broader than that. With declining democratic regimes, the West will be unable to tackle the other problems mentioned in the list.

Expand full comment
Shalimar's avatar

Poll results suggest the readers of this newsletter are no less delusional than the average Twitter user

Expand full comment
Mary Chadwick's avatar

In 10 yrs time Trump will be 'too old' or maybe even have slipped this mortal coil. Climate change will however still be with us.

Expand full comment
ARJUN SAHGAL's avatar

Russia now. China, later.

Expand full comment
Peter Fowler's avatar

Trumps effects can be blunted because he is only one human; the climate crisis can only be blunted by all humans acting.

Expand full comment
Nancy Blake's avatar

Trump as President will take absolute control of all the instruments of government in the US and become a permanent dictator, in a position to implement his entirely destructive policies. Not exactly ‘only one human’.

Expand full comment