The Climate is Doomed
A second Trump presidency stops the battle to prevent climate armageddon before it could even begin.
Of all of the things we lost when Trump won the other day — I keep wanting to write “won,” suggesting it was somehow stolen as many are beginning to hint at, but I abhor conspiracy theories — it is probably the progress we had been making on the battle against climate change.
Yes, I know, the progress has been similar to a chain smoker cutting down his intake by three cigarettes a day still leaving a total of 57 — my father, at his peak, smoked three packs a day of Kool — but if you are that smoker and catch yourself turning down the need to partake just those three times, then what is to stop you from rejecting cigarettes 20 times a day; then 40; and then 60? It’s a long journey, and the damage was, for the most part,already done — my father had his first heart attack at 38 and his last one at 64 — but the journey had commenced nonetheless. Joe Biden has accomplished more in terms of setting the economy and the nation in the right direction than his predecessors.
Biden put the United States at the forefront in its commitment to combat the effects of climate change not because the U.S. is doing more than all other countries but because, as traditionally the largest polluter — not second to China — Biden’s leadership was showing the world that it’s okay to do something. When the United States acts in ways that seek to benefit all nations and not just our bottom line, the rational and sane countries eventually follow suit. Healthy societies want to be a part of something big and good. Seeing the U.S. acting selfishly, even potentially criminally, makes them feel foolish. I mean, even though Portugal is one of the greenest countries in the world, what effect can little Portugal’s efforts have when the United States is polluting to its heart’s content?
Europeans were delighted by the Biden administration’s efforts, and before many could react to the U.S. call to action, Biden was gone, and Trump returns. One of the first things Trump will do on day one is to undo as much as he can of Biden’s green accomplishments. He will be doing so not because he really cares much about them either way but because he thinks it makes him look strong and decisive; and because the people who paid for his victory expect him to pay them back by gutting all green legislation.
A whole slew of bad will happen when Trump returns to office. As terrible as I find the repeal of Roe v. Wade, I also believe that the pendulum will somehow, at some time in the future, swing back, and abortion will be made legal again. I never had a dog in the fight for transgender issues, and I view this as a made-up controversy the right uses to lull its poorly educated, racist cult into a stupor of anger and hate. I believe that as bad as it might seem right now for transgender rights in the country, sooner or later, society will accept them the way it has gay marriage and so much more. There will always be pockets of ignorance and hate, and to expect we can make everyone agree with us is ridiculous.
Trump’s promised tax cuts make me sick, too, as well as the proposed tariffs. These things will come back and bite everyone in the ass except again Trump’s budding oligarchy and the super-rich. The middle and working classes might eventually understand how harmful these tax cuts will be for the future of our economy.
It is climate change, however, that is devastating the entire world in ways that were predicted but not yet and not with such intensity. Scientists knew there would be more moisture in the atmosphere, but they couldn’t foresee what happened in Valencia, Spain, two weeks ago. They couldn’t have foreseen the amount of humidity dropped in Austria last month in the form of torrential downpours and meters of snow at higher elevations. Then there is the devastation of North Carolina, which many on the right blame on Biden and Harris! Did Trump’s strategy of lying about the lack of help push North Carolina to him?
Climate change is real, and most Americans accept that it is happening. On the right, however, climate change is like the nose that the ignorant masses crave to cut off, and they just don’t give a damn that they are spiting their own faces. They actually enjoy hacking off their noses. It is like a sport for them.
Donald Trump’s there-is-no-climate-change approach will halt a lot of necessary progress, and given how dangerous the climate has become, these lost four years will likely be remembered as the ones when humanity just said, “fuck it, bring it on, bitch,” and then stood there waiting for the winds to take them away.