Following his expressions over issues of science including global climate change, and on the heels of a dramatic rise in polls across the U.S. that puts Donald Trump just about even with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, a community of 375 scientists including the likes of Stephen Hawking penned an open letter warning of the potential ramifications of a Trump White House.

In his ongoing beef with China, who he says doesn’t play by the rules like the rest of us, Trump has taken a polar opposite stance from Clinton by promising to “cancel the Paris Climate Agreement and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.”

The U.S. and China, who combine to emit the most greenhouse gases of anyone in the world,  ratified the Paris climate agreement earlier this month.

More than 170 nations have promised to fight carbon pollution under the agreement.

In defense of climate science

Speaking of the “basic science” available to us from the past hundred years, the Responsible Scientists issued this collective reminder: “We know … that rapid warming of the planet increases the risk of crossing climatic points of no return, possibly setting in motion large-scale ocean circulation changes, the loss of major ice sheets, and species extinctions. The climatic consequences of exceeding such thresholds are not confined to the next one or two electoral cycles. They have lifetimes of many thousands of years.”

Trump threatens to undermine the work of global science

A close-up image of the crack spreading across the ice shelf of Pine Island Glacier

Flying in the face of a Republican nominee who has been known to say,  “I don’t believe in climate change,” and  “we could use a big fat dose of global warming!,” the Responsible Scientists also directed their grievances toward perceived geopolitical ramifications of a Trump presidency.  “The consequences of opting out of the global community would be severe and long-lasting – for our planet’s climate and for the international credibility of the United States.”

Read more: For a fully interactive resource that permits a better understanding of climate science, visit GlobalChange.gov