One Small Step For Climate Castastrophe, One Giant Leap Towards Banana Republic
Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters
If you haven’t heard, you will soon enough. Donald Trump just pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord. We are now one of only four nations, along with Iran, Yemen and Libya, and the only major economy to not commit with the rest of the world to “keep global warming below levels that could lead to environmental catastrophe,” as the New York Times explains it.
The move, one of several energy-related announcements in the hours following his inauguration, is yet another about-face in United States participation in global climate negotiations. During his first term Mr. Trump withdrew from the Paris accord, but then President Biden quickly rejoined in 2020 after winning the White House.
Scientists, activists and Democratic officials assailed the move as one that would deepen the climate crisis and backfire on American workers. Coupled with Mr. Trump’s other energy measures on Monday, withdrawal from the pact signals his administration’s determination to double down on fossil-fuel extraction and production, and to move away from clean-energy technologies like electric vehicles and power-generating wind turbines.
I have never understood the shortsidedness and greed of the fossil fuel energy. They have children and grandchildren like anybody else. I guess their thought is that if you’re rich you can avoid all problems. And that’s true for a lot of situations but when this planet becomes dysfunctional and dies, there’s going to be no place for anybody — or, well, maybe a few temperate zones for the uber wealthy but then how are they going to get people to work the fields and serve them? Or, maybe they can build a space station like in that Matt Damon movie, Elysium, and that will last until the inevitable class war.
This is dystopian, what just happened today. But it is quintessentially Republican, my friends. Greed, power, squeezing the little guy for every dollar and sacrificing the good of all for the short term personal gain of a few, that’s the GOP, “leadership you can depend on,” as their slogan went.
Scientists say all major economies would have to cut their emissions deeply this decade to keep global warming at relatively low levels.
In a scenario where Mr. Trump rolled back most of Mr. Biden’s climate policies, U.S. emissions might fall only 24 to 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, the Rhodium Group found. […]
“President Trump is choosing to begin his term pandering to the fossil fuel industry and its allies,” the Union of Concerned Scientists said in a statement. “His disgraceful and destructive decision is an ominous harbinger of what people in the United States should expect from him and his anti-science cabinet.”
That’s it in a nutshell. When a bunch of crazies are deciding policy which affects the health of the entire planet and they’re all going against the scientists, that is a culture in decay. And that’s where we are. And we warned people of this during the election but it didn’t take. Climate change is something that the ignorant just can’t wrap their heads around. Survivors of the Titanic disaster said there were people on board who simply did not believe the ship was sinking. They thought it was too big to go down. And then they found out the awful truth when they were in the water.
This is the path we’re on. We need to fight like hell to get back in power in 2026. Half the country is sane and both chambers of Congress are now held by a slender margin. We need to get back in control and stonewall this maniac.
