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About Climate: Will We, The World's Human Population Succumb To Rqapid Change?
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Walt In Seattle
Jul 5, 2018, 7:08:03 AM7/5/18
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I don't have the answer to the question in the topic title. But the situation does not look good. CO2 levels in the atmosphere continue to rise and temperatures with it. As I type, areas of the Western U.S. are ravaged by EARLY heat and EARLY wildfires. The Eastern and Mid-West U.S. are coming off a heatwave that brought highs to or above 100 in some places. Record rainfall in some areas of the World and increasing desertification in others is a growing problem. More and more, we see the impact of drought and associated famine that prompts climate refugee migration. Sea levels are rising and causing problems, as people in coastal areas of Florida, Virginia and New York will tell you. The Arctic is melting and species that serve as a source of food for people who live there are under threat.
Donald Trump chooses to ignore all of this in favor of his focus on the concept "America is open for business" and his apparent belief or pretense that whatever problems exist with climate can be mitigated by hardening infrastructure along with preparations for adaptive resilience. But President Trump's error, knowingly made or not, which impacts all of us, is, for now, to dismiss prevailing climate science for whatever reason(s) -- because he believes his own rhetoric or doesn't but understands that making his base happy means feeding it with fantasies such as non-existent "clean coal" and the lie that changes made at the EPA improve its mission to protect the environment rather than sacrifice it for certain business interests. Scott Pruitt is the worst EPA Administrator ever to run the EPA and President Trump supports him all the way insomuch as Pruitt is doing EXACTLY what President Trump wants him to do, ethics issues not withstanding..
In the four to eight years President Trump will be in office, so much damage will occur with little or no attempt to mitigate climate change. When he's done, will we find we are so deep in a climate change hole we can never dig ourselves out? Maybe yes; maybe no. But it's time lost and damage done, no matter how you slice and dice it.
It might be true that we human beings are headed for extinction from climate change combined with other problems or JUST that one problem while nothing we could have done with another President would prevent that outcome, although perhaps slightly delay it. Yet, it's clear that doing nothing won't help us and making the problem worse ONLY digs for us a deeper hole as well as that President Trump either doesn't have the slightest clue what will help us survive or JUST doesn't give a damn, at least for now!
I've written what's above in so many ways so many times and so many others have done the same -- people with real bonafides in climate science. However, in America, this effort has moved the meter only a touch. Some leaders in some cities or regions are more proactive. Their effort is appreciated. But, frankly, and even though they're trying to do everything in their power, I'm afraid it's too little too late.
Donald Trump chooses to ignore all of this in favor of his focus on the concept "America is open for business" and his apparent belief or pretense that whatever problems exist with climate can be mitigated by hardening infrastructure along with preparations for adaptive resilience. But President Trump's error, knowingly made or not, which impacts all of us, is, for now, to dismiss prevailing climate science for whatever reason(s) -- because he believes his own rhetoric or doesn't but understands that making his base happy means feeding it with fantasies such as non-existent "clean coal" and the lie that changes made at the EPA improve its mission to protect the environment rather than sacrifice it for certain business interests. Scott Pruitt is the worst EPA Administrator ever to run the EPA and President Trump supports him all the way insomuch as Pruitt is doing EXACTLY what President Trump wants him to do, ethics issues not withstanding..
In the four to eight years President Trump will be in office, so much damage will occur with little or no attempt to mitigate climate change. When he's done, will we find we are so deep in a climate change hole we can never dig ourselves out? Maybe yes; maybe no. But it's time lost and damage done, no matter how you slice and dice it.
It might be true that we human beings are headed for extinction from climate change combined with other problems or JUST that one problem while nothing we could have done with another President would prevent that outcome, although perhaps slightly delay it. Yet, it's clear that doing nothing won't help us and making the problem worse ONLY digs for us a deeper hole as well as that President Trump either doesn't have the slightest clue what will help us survive or JUST doesn't give a damn, at least for now!
I've written what's above in so many ways so many times and so many others have done the same -- people with real bonafides in climate science. However, in America, this effort has moved the meter only a touch. Some leaders in some cities or regions are more proactive. Their effort is appreciated. But, frankly, and even though they're trying to do everything in their power, I'm afraid it's too little too late.
Walt In Seattle
Jul 5, 2018, 5:47:42 PM7/5/18
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It's good and proper that Scott Pruitt has resigned. However, his resignation will likely result in NO substantive changes in EPA policy or Trump Administration agendas on climate or environment. In many ways on Monday, we'll probably be back to an EPA in deference to certain business interests rather than the environment.
Walt In Seattle
Jul 5, 2018, 8:19:48 PM7/5/18
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https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/07/05/scandal-plagued-scott-pruitt-resigns-epa-coal-lobbyist-andrew-wheeler-ascends-epa-administrator
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[...] [Andrew Wheeler is a former staffer for climite-science-denying Senator James Inhofe while Wheeler is also known] as a member of the “Inhofe mafia,” or influential energy industry lobbyists – and ex-lobbyists, like Wheeler, who now work in the Trump administration – according to The New York Times. ** See https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/climate/wheeler-epa-pruitt.html **- [...] Until mid-2017, Wheeler lobbied on behalf of Murray Energy, the nation's largest privately owned coal company. Run by vocal climate change denier Robert Murray, the energy company has fought against industry regulation and climate change mitigation efforts. ** See https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=CE66752A-BB7B-4C2C-8A59-4C8FD6A761A0&filingTypeID=60 and http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/pdfform.aspx?id=300367162 as well as https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Murray_Energy_Corporation ** Murray Energy, while Wheeler's client, produced an “Action Plan” for the Trump Administration including complete elimination of the Clean Power Plan, overturning the endangerment finding for greenhouse gases, and eliminating tax credits for wind and solar energy. ** See https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/09/climate/document-Murray-Energy-Action-Plan.html ** [...]
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[...] [Andrew Wheeler is a former staffer for climite-science-denying Senator James Inhofe while Wheeler is also known] as a member of the “Inhofe mafia,” or influential energy industry lobbyists – and ex-lobbyists, like Wheeler, who now work in the Trump administration – according to The New York Times. ** See https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/climate/wheeler-epa-pruitt.html **- [...] Until mid-2017, Wheeler lobbied on behalf of Murray Energy, the nation's largest privately owned coal company. Run by vocal climate change denier Robert Murray, the energy company has fought against industry regulation and climate change mitigation efforts. ** See https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=CE66752A-BB7B-4C2C-8A59-4C8FD6A761A0&filingTypeID=60 and http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/pdfform.aspx?id=300367162 as well as https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Murray_Energy_Corporation ** Murray Energy, while Wheeler's client, produced an “Action Plan” for the Trump Administration including complete elimination of the Clean Power Plan, overturning the endangerment finding for greenhouse gases, and eliminating tax credits for wind and solar energy. ** See https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/09/climate/document-Murray-Energy-Action-Plan.html ** [...]
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