Climate Change

From “A planet in peril”, New York Times, Editorial Board, Oct 18, 2020.

For anyone who cares about the health of the planet, the Trump years have been, to say the least, profoundly discouraging. Barely two months in office, President Trump order his cabinet to review and remove any regulatory obstacles to the production of oil, gas and coal; shortly thereafter, he renounced America’s support for the landmark Paris climate agreement, thus shedding any claim to American leadership on a global crisis.

It was more or less downhill from there. He methodically decapitated Obama-era rules aimed at limiting emissions from power plants and oil and gas operations and mandating increases in fuel efficiency. He also opened public land hitherto shielded from mining and drilling exploration.

There were other assaults large and small on environmental protections, but the most damaging were those that undermined rules to diminish greenhouse gases while enabling the industries that produced them. All this despite the climate-related carnage in front of his own eyes, conspicuously the fires in California – and despite authoritative studies warning that failure to wrench emissions drastically downward over the next decade will bring irreversible damage.

Emissions in America, pre-Covid-19 declined slightly thanks partly to the switch to cleaner fuels and the determined efforts of states and cities to do the job Mr. Trump won’t do. Globally, however emissions have been rising and the seas with them.

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So absolutely well stated. Climate change is a significant factor in recent extreme weather events includes both prolong drought and hurricanes/ monsoons. This year we went through the entire list of 24 named hurricanes and now Hurricane Delta is destroying the western areas of Louisiana and Texas. The forest fires and devastating ecological damage is occurring now in the Brazilian amazon rain forest, the incredible unique wetlands to the south (Pantanal), Australia, and all along the artic circle in Siberia, Greenland, and Alaska.

Yes, our air is clean, because the carbon pollutants go to the upper atmosphere and cause trapping of solar rays. Our planet is overheating like one big greenhouse.

Obama understood the severity of the problem and so does Joe Biden. They will put qualified people who have the interest at heart. We need global solutions, and this means action from China, Russia, India and Brazil.

Donald Trump puts fossil fuel lobbyists in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency. Yes, our air is clean, because the carbon pollutants go to the upper atmosphere and cause trapping of solar rays. Our planet is overheating like one big greenhouse.

Stay tuned,

Dave