--- title: Stephen Hawking Hits Donald Trump on Climate Change description: A large group of the nation's top scientists penned an open letter railing against Donald Trump for his stance on climate change canonical: https://time.com/4502561/donald-trump-stephen-hawking-climate-change/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-21T14:14:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:35.566Z article:section: Politics og:title: Stephen Hawking and Hundreds of Other Scientists Are Slamming Trump og:description: The group penned an open letter opposing Donald Trump's stance on climate change og:url: https://time.com/4502561/donald-trump-stephen-hawking-climate-change/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt818da80d5fa097cb/69888ed4e20a870800a90612/stephen-hawking-life-space.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3033 og:image:height: 1706 og:image:alt: EE British Academy Film Awards 2015 - Red Carpet Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Hawking and Hundreds of Other Scientists Are Slamming Trump twitter:description: The group penned an open letter opposing Donald Trump's stance on climate change twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt818da80d5fa097cb/69888ed4e20a870800a90612/stephen-hawking-life-space.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Hawking and Hundreds of Other Scientists Are Slamming Donald Trump > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Sep 21, 2016 2:14 PM UTC  Stephen Hawking attends the EE British Academy Film Awards at The Royal Opera House on February 8, 2015 in London, England. Stephen Hawking attends the EE British Academy Film Awards at The Royal Opera House on February 8, 2015 in London, England. John Phillips—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Sep 21, 2016 2:14 PM UTC A large group of the nation’s top scientists penned an [open letter](http://responsiblescientists.org) railing against Donald Trump for his stance on climate change and his suggestion that the U.S. walk away from the landmark Paris climate agreement. “It is of great concern that the Republican nominee for President has advocated U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Accord,” [the letter](http://responsiblescientists.org) from the group Responsible Scientists said. “A ‘Parexit’ would send a clear signal to the rest of the world: ‘The United States does not care about the global problem of human-caused climate change. You are on your own.'” The Paris agreement was reached by 195 countries last year at the United Nations Climate Change Conference. President Obama was [a proponent of the agreement](http://time.com/4146900/paris-climate-deal-obama-president/), which facilitates global coordination on combating climate change. Trump has said in the past that he would [“cancel”](http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-36401174 paris) the Paris deal. Among the 375 scientists signing the letter released Tuesday was noted physicist Stephen Hawking, along with 30 nobel laureates and Steven Chu, former Secretary of Energy under Obama. The group also issued a broadside to politicians who deny the overwhelming scientific consensus that the planet is warming and that human activity is responsible. “During the Presidential primary campaign, claims were made that the Earth is not warming, or that warming is due to purely natural causes outside of human control,” they said. “Such claims are inconsistent with reality.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4502561/donald-trump-stephen-hawking-climate-change/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4502561/donald-trump-stephen-hawking-climate-change/"},"headline":"Stephen Hawking and Hundreds of Other Scientists Are Slamming Donald Trump","datePublished":"2016-09-21T14:14:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:35.566Z","description":"The group penned an open letter opposing Donald Trump's stance on climate change","url":"https://time.com/4502561/donald-trump-stephen-hawking-climate-change/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","climate change","climate","Stephen Hawking"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt818da80d5fa097cb/69888ed4e20a870800a90612/stephen-hawking-life-space.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt818da80d5fa097cb/69888ed4e20a870800a90612/stephen-hawking-life-space.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"EE British Academy Film Awards 2015 - Red Carpet Arrivals","caption":"Stephen Hawking attends the EE British Academy Film Awards at The Royal Opera House on February 8, 2015 in London, England.","creditText":"John Phillips—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4502561/donald-trump-stephen-hawking-climate-change/","name":"Stephen Hawking and Hundreds of Other Scientists Are Slamming Donald Trump"}}]}] ```