Hans Joachim Schellnhuber has warned that the United States, under the Trump administration, is on the brink of becoming a leading scientific nation only to fall dramatically. Speaking to the “Frankfurter Rundschau” (Thursday edition), he said, “They are about to commit suicide as a future‑proof nation”.
For many decades the U.S. has reaped the greatest benefits from scientific and technological progress. Schellnhuber now fears that this progress is being privatized. He explains that the current shift back to fossil fuels is driven by profits for large shareholders, while the public is misled about the climate consequences. The climate scientist-general director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg near Vienna and former director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) until 2018-warns that such policies erode the nation’s scientific lead.
He also notes that, while Trump’s return to “superstition” will not endure, it temporarily satisfies his voter base. “His followers would go along with him if he told them the Earth is a flat disc or a Super‑Big Mac” Schellnhuber said.
Looking ahead, Schellnhuber predicts that China will become the world’s top scientific nation within the next decade. The country is heavily investing in renewable energy, energy storage, artificial intelligence and other disruptive technologies that are both sustainable and commercially lucrative. In this way, China is set to assume the role that the U.S. played after World War II.
In this emerging global landscape Schellnhuber sees chances for the European Union. He argues that the EU should distance itself further from the United States and deepen cooperation with China-though not uncritically. Simultaneously, Europe could form a new, independent power base with emerging African nations, positioning itself as a world leader in several innovative domains. According to Schellnhuber, these sectors include climate‑friendly building, smart grid management, systemic energy storage, biodegradable polymers, bio‑based composites, regenerative land use, and sustainable food systems.