The Trump administration says sure we're on the path to oblivion but so what? From the Washington Post:
Last month, deep in a 500-page environmental impact statement, the Trump administration made a startling assumption: On its current course, the planet will warm a disastrous 7 degrees by the end of this century.
A rise of 7 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 4 degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels would be catastrophic, according to scientists. Many coral reefs would dissolve in increasingly acidic oceans. Parts of Manhattan and Miami would be underwater without costly coastal defenses. Extreme heat waves would routinely smother large parts of the globe.
But the administration did not offer this dire forecast as part of an argument to combat climate change. Just the opposite: The analysis assumes the planet’s fate is already sealed.
The draft statement, issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), was written to justify President Trump’s decision to freeze federal fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks built after 2020. While the proposal would increase greenhouse gas emissions, the impact statement says, that policy would add just a very small drop to a very big, hot bucket.
“The amazing thing they’re saying is human activities are going to lead to this rise of carbon dioxide that is disastrous for the environment and society. And then they’re saying they’re not going to do anything about it,” said Michael MacCracken, who served as a senior scientist at the U.S. Global Change Research Program from 1993 to 2002.Maybe this is where Justin gets his ideas about flooding world markets with high-carbon bitumen. He hasn't said that our planet's fate is already sealed but he certainly acts as though he believes it.
Trump has vowed to exit the Paris accord and called climate change a hoax. In the past two months, the White House has pushed to dismantle nearly half a dozen major rules aimed at reducing greenhouse gases, deregulatory moves intended to save companies hundreds of millions of dollars.
If enacted, the administration’s proposals would give new life to aging coal plants; allow oil and gas operations to release more methane into the atmosphere; and prevent new curbs on greenhouse gases used in refrigerators and air-conditioning units. The vehicle rule alone would put 8 billion additional tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere this century, more than a year’s worth of total U.S. emissions, according to the government’s own analysis.Can a world leader thumb his nose at the very survival of human civilization and not be guilty of crimes against humanity? If they're going to condemn billions of innocents to die should their own lives, or at least their freedom, not be forfeit first?
15 comments:
This is unspeakably vile, Mound. But if people cannot muster the outrage needed to stop this very dramatic end to life as we know it, then the only conclusion to be drawn is that we don't deserve to continue as a species.
Perhaps Team Trump is simply saying what so many others try to mask, Lorne. How can you look at our own government's policies and not see the same thinking only with a 'carbon price' smokescreen?
"This grotesque and coordinated character assassination will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from serving our country, and as we all know, in the United States political system of the early 2000s, what goes around, comes around."
Violent serial gang rapist and black out drunk "Bart" Kaveneaugh's Opening Statement, September 27, 2018.
Y'all might not have noticed, but that's both a threat and a promise.
White Supremacy House in the hands of Nazi's, NeoCons, Russian Agents, Corporations, the 1%, Zionists, God Botherer's, Alex Jones Junkies, and a violent serial rapist Insane Clown POSus.
Check.
The Senate is in the hands of Nazi, Zionist, rape, 1%, killmonger enablers, engaged in Pay for Play, Alex Jones Conspiracy Mainliners and Russian Agents and by 2040, they will have a super majority,
Check,
The Supreme Court is now getting a legal moron, corporatist, serial violent gang rapist, entitlement frat white boy, rageaholic vowing revenge against everybody left of Paul Ryan and who belives the President is a King when Republican and a Criminal when Democrat.
Bye bye, America.
The US isn't going to make it to 2100.
Do you live a carbon-intensive lifestyle (if you reside in the U.S. and Canada you certainly do unless you're homeless)? Then you are just as guilty. Yapping about global warming without drastically cutting back on your carbon footprint is just so much virtue-signalling posturing.
Trump knows this, which is why he's willing to bet he'll face no political consequences. And he's right, because I guarantee you there are plenty of liberals who are secretly relieved that they can quietly offload their load of the blame onto him, then jump into the SUV for a trip to Starbucks and use their iMac to post online expressing their outrage.
LMFAO at the whattaboutism from the Saint Petersburg Troll.
Karl, some of us do strive to minimize our carbon footprint. My electricity is mainly generated via hydro-electric. I use gasoline in my car but I drive it infrequently. When I do it's primarily to go to the nearest city to shop and, on those trips, I include at least one neighbour. Everyone figures out which stores they need to visit and we handle the lot on one trip instead of multiple trips by multiple drivers. I cool my house with casement windows and sea breezes. In the winter I keep my house adequately warm by using a high-efficiency fireplace/stove for about four hours each evening. The place is well insulated and that lets me get through the following day without discomfort. LED light bulbs, etc., etc. It also helps that I have significantly downsized my abode from a large family house to a small bungalow that's vastly easier to maintain.
To the consternation of distant family members and friends who invite me to holiday with them, I have given up air travel completely. I don't consider that a hardship because I traveled extensively and lived abroad in the 60s and 70s, back when mass tourism hadn't ruined things worth seeing.
.. b bb but the Rapture ! The 17 virgins ? Valhalla ? The Water into Wine.. reprise.. please ! Hallelujah n Hosannas !
Damn near fell out of my chair at the recent tweet from Ms Sarah Huckabee Sanders asking 'God bless Brett Kavanaugh', Lindsay Graham frothing at the mouth as a bevy of women (who replaced Kavanaugh's girls basketball team) fluffed up the placid background to Kavanaugh as Ms Ford was challenged.. Seems the stakes are high eh ? Go for broke n don't look back in the charge to take control of hill 45 (The Supreme Court majority) for the great large brained dotage of Donald Trump
Laying waste to any land or water mass containing burnable or sellable resources is KEY to much of this insanity. Why ? I assume its as usual with any crime.. about money, greed, passion, revenge, control. If one (despite disparaging them) controls the highest court of the land, then any ultimate dispute gets settled there.. and there's always other related authorities to conquer when you hold the trump cards. FBI, CIA, the Military branches, higher education, and all the ancillery aspects of 'government' - Finance, Health, Education, Agriculture, Environment.. and dare I say it - 'religion'.. you name it, everything falls under the thumb of President, Supreme Court, Senate, Congress .. (and Media)
But we should be thankful here in North America, Mound..
We have the Great White Golf Father and his blessed companion Sean Hannity to lead us to the promised land.. sure, it may get a little painful near the glorious end.. as our arms n legs get amputated without anesthetic... Oh ! Did I mention, the pain is getting bequeathed to our next & following generations ? A 'legacy' or 'gift' - Its not us who get to suffer for Jeebuz.. its those who follow us. Like my family.. yours.. hell, everyone's ! Like if born today.. you are the beneficiary.. and your parents' mental health comes into question, for even considering adding you to a stunningly overpopulated, dying planet..
But Trump, Lindsay Graham, Ivanka et al can yuk it up aboard Air Force One.. off to another country club with flunkies in tow.. and count on it, Mound. a few more Executive Orders will get signed re drilling in the Arctic, or eliminating subsidy to alternative energy, or zero penalty for dumping coal waste in the Great Lakes (surely petcoke dumping cannot be far behind) and of course, no limitations re LNG wells or abandoned or working oil wells spewing methane and other components. And if there's an uprising or State (USA) or Provincial (Canada) attempt to put the brakes on the madness... well, The President can simply steer the contretemps to 'his' Supreme Court.. for the final solution.. to be enforced by Military if n as required..
- haha.. will it be a scenario such as - Supreme Court has ruled, live ammunition and armored tanks are a legitimate 'use of force' to contain unruly students or starving hordes who 'threaten the rule of law' while demanding food, water and shelter.
I think the extinction of those of us who make up the dependent classes has already been factored in, probably as essential factors, to whatever loose planning for the future of humanity is taking shape in Libertopia. Once we've been consigned to our fate, recovery of the planet will be a much simpler exercise.
“Everybody’s trying to get out, and they’re stuck in traffic. … I need to own a motorcycle because everybody else is screwed."
“I keep a helicopter gassed up all the time, and I have an underground bunker with an air-filtration system. A lot of my friends do the guns and the motorcycles and the gold coins. That’s not too rare anymore.”
"Are you taking your pilot’s family, too? And what about the maintenance guys?"
"I have a broker who sells old ICBM silos, and they’re nuclear-hardened, and they kind of look like they would be interesting to live in.”
"I will probably be in charge, or at least not a slave, when push comes to shove.”
Hubristic, superstitious apes with a collection of constructed faux facades to justify both our hubris and our superstitions.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death
Thanks, Sal, for once again totally overwhelming my thought processes with your imagery. You'll be my first pick for writing the history of our dystopia.
John B. I don't think the planet will recover for millennia if we trigger a mass extinction as predicted. Ocean acidification will be the most likely trigger and the process is well set out by Peter Ward in his book, "Under a Green Sky."
"First, the world warms over short intervals of time because of a sudden increase of carbon dioxide and methane... The warmer world affects the ocean circulation systems and disrupts the position of the conveyer currents. Bottom waters begin to have warm, low-oxygen water dumped into them. Warming continues, and the decrease of equator-to-pole temperature differences reduces ocean winds and surface currents to a near standstill. Mixing of oxygenated surface waters with the deeper, and volumetrically increasing, low-oxygen bottom waters decreases, causing ever-shallower water to change from oxygenated to anoxic. Finally, the bottom water is at depths were light can penetrate, the combination of low oxygen and light allows green sulfur bacteria to expand in numbers and fill the low-oxygen shallows. They live amid other bacteria that produce toxic amounts of hydrogen sulfide, and the flux of this gas into the atmosphere is as much as 2,000 times what it is today. The gas rises into the high atmosphere, where it breaks down the ozone layer, and the subsequent increase in ultraviolet radi8ation from the sun kills much of the photosynthetic green plant phytoplankton. On its way up into the sky, the hydrogen sulfide also kills some plant and animal life, and the combination of high heat and hydrogen sulfide creates a mass extinction on land. These are the greenhouse extinctions."
Yes, Dana, hubris abounds and, as the Greeks remind us, Hubris is inevitably followed by Nemesis.
Jay, I don't think even Poe could have imagined this.
The Masque of the Red Death is about the Rich and Powerful being immune from consequences,
They are not, but as we have seen with the Yale/Harvard Allumni, they lead lives that have been immune from consequences in many regards, while rendering the people who make their lives possible, from gardeners to IT Staff invisible.
One cannot "wait out" Global Warming in a Gated Community.
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