If Trump stays in power, will it be too late for the environment?

An alarming new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just been released.   It's title, "Special Report on Global Warming," says that even the agreements of the Paris Accord are insufficient and that we are already seeing the impact and changes resulting from a 1 degree Celsius increase:   the extreme weather events of this summer, the rising sea levels, and the shrinking of arctic ice.

That's with 1 degree.   The Paris Accord was aimed at holding the increase to 2 degrees;  and yet this latest IPCC report predicts that, without drastic action, the increase will be a 3 degree Celsius rise by the end of this century.

Even limiting the rise to 1.5 degrees C "would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society;"  but it is definitely worth the effort, according to the IPCC report which had 91 authors and review editors from 40 countries.

Yet, the Trump administration essentially throws up its hands and says -- we can't afford it, so we'll do nothing.   In fact, they're doing worse than nothing.  They're busy reversing the positive changes that were initiated by the Obama administration.  The President has called climate change a hoax invented by China, and has pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement.

According to an article by Mike Scott in Forbes magazine, "a recent U.S. government report suggests that global temperatures will rise by 4 degrees C -- and that there is nothing we can do about it, so we might as well carry on pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere."

This report, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), "aimed to justify Trump's plan to freeze fuel efficiency standards after 2020.   The document accepted that such large temperature rises would cause extreme heat waves, more floods and droughts and increasingly acidic oceans . . . and leave many cities around the world underwater thanks to rising sea levels. . . ."

But the NHTSA report says that to avoid these outcomes, "would require substantial increases in technology innovation and adoption compared to today's levels and would require the economy and the vehicle fleet to move away from the use of fossil fuels, which is not currently technologically feasible or economically feasible."

That's the report Trump wanted, so that's what they gave him -- such a discouraging prospect that it would make no difference if he abandons fuel efficiency on cars.

The Forbes author says, "It's hard to know where to start addressing such idiocy. which flies in the face of ample evidence of the development of renewable energy technologies and electric vehicles that are becoming ever-more competitive with their fossil fuel equivalents."

He further adds that even limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C "will have huge benefits -- 10 cm less of sea level rises, fewer heatwaves and less flooding and fewer impacts on human health."   In contrast, doing nothing -- as the Trump administration's NHTSA report advises -- will be disastrous for planet earth.  "'Every extra bit of warming matters, especially since warming of 1.5 degrees C or higher increases the risk . . . of  irreversible changes,'" said one of the report's coordinators. 

Al Gore adds that "'the Trump administration has become a rogue outlier in its short-sighted attempt to prop up the dirty fossil fuel industries of the past.  The administration is in direct conflict with American businesses, states, cities, and citizens leading the transformation.'"

Nicolette Bartlett, director of Climate Change at CDP, added that:  "'We are already seeing leading companies, cities, governments and investors making strides towards the low-carbon transition;  not just because they identify increased risks from climate change, but because they also see the opportunities of the emerging green economy. . . .  [C]limate action is fast mainstreaming throughout the global economy. . . .  However, this latest scientific update [the IPCC report] sends a clear signal that this momentum must ramp up and accelerate sharply.  We have the technical and financial tools necessary to tackle climate change . . . but it will require urgent action at all levels.'"

President Trump, will you continue to be part of the problem?   If nothing else, can you selfishly consider the effect of rising sea levels on your beloved Mar-a-Lago ?   You'd better move those portraits of yourself to upper floors . . . or the sea crabs could be nibbling at your toes.

Or you could do something about climate change.

Ralph