(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
White House Dooms Humanity to Burn [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-22
Been waiting to see Trump's official climate change policy? Brace yourself.
Okay, okay. This administration alone “dooming us to burn” is a bit of hyperbole. Between greedy, gaslighting, junk-science commissioning fossil fuel corporations and supine politicians in thrall to oil money, we’re already pretty much toast. Climate change is accelerating. Global emissions continue to rise. Each successive COP gathering seems to be more of a cosmic joke than the last.
But if there had been a different outcome in the American election last November, we might have had something other than the intellectually bankrupt nonsense that’s posted at WhiteHouse.gov right now. We might have had a set of serious policy proposals - and more importantly, a set of people in the administration with whom we could have reasoned, and even push in a more aggressive direction. Folks we might have been able to persuade to take more climate action, and do it expeditiously.
Now? Well, thanks to “independent voters” and everyone else voting against their own damned interests, we’ve got this. Behold, US climate change policy under the Trump/Vance administration.
Listed in Issues, directly following the section titled MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN, is this:
MAKE AMERICA AFFORDABLE AND ENERGY DOMINANT AGAIN
The President will unleash American energy by ending Biden’s policies of climate extremism, streamlining permitting, and reviewing for rescission all regulations that impose undue burdens on energy production and use, including mining and processing of non-fuel minerals.
President Trump’s energy actions empower consumer choice in vehicles, showerheads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs and dishwashers.
President Trump will declare an energy emergency and use all necessary resources to build critical infrastructure.
President Trump’s energy policies will end leasing to massive wind farms that degrade our natural landscapes and fail to serve American energy consumers.
President Trump will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.
All agencies will take emergency measures to reduce the cost of living.
President Trump will announce the America First Trade Policy.
America will no longer be beholden to foreign organizations for our national tax policy, which punishes American businesses.
Showerheads? Really? Emergency measures to reduce the cost of living - how? And what’s the last line about - a carbon tax? Why the hell doesn’t it list sharks, Jewish space lasers, and the “Chinese hoax,” FFS? That wouldn’t be any sillier than what’s written.
This ridiculous dribble is not worthy of serious discussion, of course. It’s not a list of fleshed out policy positions based on evidence and the scientific method. It’s a cheap, ratty grab bag of false assumptions, flat-out lies and obfuscation, and a blaring dog whistle to the energy sector that the US government is going to MAKE IT RAIN petro dollars on the fossil fuel corporations.
In 2023, Climate.gov posted:
Even though the United States no longer leads the world in total annual carbon dioxide emissions, it was still, as of 2021, releasing about 5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, which was about 13.49 percent of the total global emissions—more than twice that of all 28 countries in the European Union
And…
Any reductions in emissions is beneficial. Rising emissions from China and India could eventually overshadow total U.S. emissions, and could easily push global warming past the 1.5°C goal, and even past the 2°C goal. This looming possibility might make U.S. emission reductions seem pointless, but they are not. If heat-trapping emissions continue, where they originate won’t matter nearly as much as how big they are and how long they continue.
The United States is still the second-largest greenhouse gas emitter on Planet Earth.
It seems President Trump and his “in the pockets of Big Oil” minions want to get us back up to number one again.
Make America a Great Emitter Again, amirite?
Remember:
Asking did not work.
Voting did not work.
Marching did not work.
Emissions keep going up.
Our leaders have failed us.
It’s our move.
Think globally — act locally — let’s save what we can.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/1/22/2298470/-White-House-Dooms-Humanity-to-Burn?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
