As we so well know, President Trump chooses to present himself as a climate change denier. No doubt this is a political decision, and we have no idea what he really believes . . . if anything at all. But play the political game, he does. With forest fires still raging in California, destroying a whole town, Trump tweeted about the recent cold wave hitting the Northeast: "Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS -- Whatever happened to Global Warming?"
As if global warming means no more winter.
No, it wasn't just a throw-away line-joke. His policies reflect the thinking of a denier: opening up off-shore areas for more oil drilling, reversing regulations on industry that were designed to reduce green house gasses, campaigning on "bring back coal" as a jobs program. More More MORE fossil fuel energy sources!!!!
So it shouldn't have surprised anyone that the Trump administration chose to release the National Climate Assessment report (required every four years) on Black Friday afternoon -- the busiest shopping day of the year when people would be paying the least attention to such devastating news.
Not surprising, of course, in the world of public relations and political spin. But what does this say about Trump's moral leadership and his lack of stewardship of the future of not just our country but of planet Earth . . . the one we call home?
The report is devastating, the equivalent of a 10 alarm fire in the short term and -- if we fail to act now -- a burnt up cinder hurling through space in the long term.
As reported by Robinson Meyer for The Atlantic, by Alexander Kaufman and Chris D'Angelo for HuffPost, as well as by others, the assessment is the work of some 300 researchers and authors; and it is endorsed by NASA, the National Weather Services' Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], the Department of Defense, and at least 10 other federal scientific agencies. It is congruent with the report issued last month from the United Nations consortium, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Meyer's Atlantic article stresses that the NOAA report "warns, repeatedly and directly, that climate change could soon imperil the American way of life, transforming every region of the country, imposing frustrating costs on the economy, and harming the health of virtually every citizen."
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel reported that, over the last 115 years, the global average air temperature has increased by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit -- and warns that, over the next 12 years, we must cut emissions in half to avoid another 2.3 degrees increase. Increases beyond that, it estimates, would cost a cataclysmic $54 TRILLION in damages.
Yes, the temperature change numbers sounds small, almost inconsequential to the untrained ear. But the price tag certainly is not inconsequential.
Continuing the Meyer quote: "[The NOAA report] contradicts nearly every position taken on the issue by President Donald Trump. Where the president has insisted that fighting global warming will harm the economy, the report responds: Climate change, if left unchecked, could eventually cost the economy hundreds of billions of dollars per year, and kill thousands of Americans to boot. Where the president has said the climate will 'probably' change back,' the report replies: Many consequences of climate change will last for millennia, and some (such as the extinction of plant and animal species) will be permanent."
All reports and virtually all scientists say that this situation "can only be explained by the effects that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, have had on the climate."
If we caused it, then we can fix it. If we have the will and the maturity to take the long view. Donald Trump obviously does not. We must replace him with those who will act before it's too late. Before we reach that point of irreversibility and inhabitability.
The point of no return is shockingly closer than we think.
Ralph
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