Nature doesn't do subpoenas: it does tornadoes, floods, wildfires and droughts. No leader can stonewall it.
It is not known yet whether Special Counsel Mueller's statement on the Russia investigation will boost to efforts to hold President Trump accountable for obstruction of justice. Meanwhile Trump's reckless disregard for the laws of the United States and of nature—both rule-based systems—will continue to jeopardize the future.
In a way, he may turn out to be right. He might reasonably conclude that his chances of being held to legal account are low, and that he can expand his capacity to govern without oversight. He may be able to game the US legal system sufficiently to shift it from checks and balances toward autocratic tyranny.
Now imagine what kind of physical world that kind of leadership will inherit. President Trump's policies not only degrade democracy but also advance the degradation of the natural world. He denies the reality of human-induced climate change, and demonstrates indifference to the destruction of the oceans, rainforests, top soil, and biodiversity. That's qualitatively different from his mockery of the US legal system, which threatens the rule of law.
Take the oceans, for example. It's a scientific fact that over 50% of the oxygen we breathe comes from oceanic phytoplankton. It's a living organism that's like our third lung—no other system generates enough of the oxygen we need to survive.
Trump's mockery of US law is outrageous and could lead us to tyranny. But his mockery of the laws of Mother Nature is a high crime and misdemeanor of a different order of magnitude.
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