GETTY Donald Trump has denied the existence of manmade climate change

Evolutionary biologist John Wiens, a Professor from the University of Arizona, said the President-elect is a "global disaster" because he is in a position to help save the environment but has previously denied the existence of manmade climate change. In his latest study titled 'Climate-Related Local Extinctions', published in the research journal Plos Biology, Wiens produced data that revealed the extent to which species are suffering from the negative effects of climate change.

GETTY Obama's Department of Water has adopted a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

People are going to die and it's going to be the fault of our country and other big polluters Professor John Wiens

Within the paper, a concluding sentence said: "The results suggest that local extinctions related to climate change are already widespread." Wiens added: "We are on track for the sixth mass extinction to happen, although we're not there yet. "But if we don't do anything it seems like it will happen in the next 50 to 100 years."

The biologist expressed his fears over the impact of Trump's presidency as the 70-year-old billionaire appointed climate change skeptic Scott Pruitt to lead the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an agency which is supposed to "protect the environment".

If he had the chance to meet Trump and explain the climate situation, Wiens said he would ask the President-elect: "What would you think if there was a country on the other side of the world releasing gas that would cause extinctions in our country, hurt our crops and make people starve?"

GETTY American protestors march against climate policy in Dakota

He jokingly said the Republican would respond saying: "Tell me where it is and we'll bomb them tomorrow." But in a more serious tone, the Professor said he would then say: "This is what we're doing to other countries because we are the big polluters.

"People are already having serious problems with food security. People are going to die and it's going to be the fault of our country and other big polluters." Environmental groups have been in a state of chaos since the appointment of Pruitt was announced because they fear he will ruin Obama's climate legacy and endanger the clean air and water Americans have enjoyed for the past 40 years.

GETTY Climate change skeptic Scott Pruitt, is now head of the EPA