This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1249691
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1249691
Trump smiles.
Now there is no reason not to open his National Parks to fracking, mining, clear cutting forests and more.
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Fifty years from now, people are going to look back at this time and have a lot to say about the inaction of their predecessors. We still have time to make a difference and save the environment for humanity, once we get past a certain point the changes are dialed in and we’re stuck unless someone has a really bright idea on how to stop the atmosphere’s chemistry from mangling human society.
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On a related note, climate change is already impacting US agriculture, but you’ll never hear that from this administration.
The WH is deliberately sidelining the results of dozens of USDA research studies showing how ag, particularly Southern ag, is already being hit by climate change.
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And, Donnie is getting ‘oranger,’ but he really doesn’t care…
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Since climate change progresses unevenly across the planet, some changes in some areas are already dialed in. For example, a big deal was made about keeping temperature changes to less than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. It turns out roughly 10pct of the US population lives in counties that have exceeded that threshold.
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Live in the Smokies foothills, January 2019 first 5 days of the new year saw temps in the 80s. So far this summer while NWS says 89 at nearest reporting station, my home weather station is reporting 95, with humidity being low today only feels like 101. That has been the case for 90% of the summer. Yesterday as an example, my home 99 with humidity 111, local NWS reported 90 as the high. Last year lost 4 trees to heat, this year already 3 have dropped all leaves by the middle of August and not sure they will come back. At least 1/2 dozen look distressed.
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I moved to AZ in 1970, and I love gardening and growing shrubs and flowers. Most of the heat tolerant plants I was able to use for landscaping in 1970 will burn up by July or mid-August now. We have temperature runs with little or no cooling relief at night that are too hot for cacti! The actual desert cools off at night, but the black-topped and concrete covered cities hold the heat in a like a kiln. We have many high pollution days which make things absolutely unlivable for people with respiratory problems.
If it were not for the fact that all of our family and grandchildren are here, we would have left when we retired 4 years ago.
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Um yeah … real small. Taking the shuttle is a miniscule savings relative to the flight or drive you just took to get there. It does however improve the NP experience in other ways. Packing out your trash is certainly your responsibility but has no effect on climate change. Voluntary actions are nice but voting for candidates that support stricter carbon emission standards and/or cap and trade is the only way to make progress. Making emisions more expensive will provide the incentive for industries to further develop renewable sources of energy. Until then they will contunue to rape the earth in pursuit of short term gain for stockholders.
Not sure I believe this. Would have been nice to say why. Sound like a statistical illusion.
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Very nice article. I would place the effects in a broader context.
Climate change is having a devastating impact on our lives right now. Trump’s authoritarianism is part of the effect. The scorched lands we see now will next be scorched lands littered with dead human beings.
I believe the thoughtful and purposeful Republican dismissal of climate science is destined to contribute to the deaths of a billion people in the next few decades — my point being that hostile climate is happening much faster than we expected. Not only are Republicans unwilling to prevent it, they are unwilling to prepare the country to survive it. Instead, they want a war to defend oil production.
Republican “right to life” is a red herring, just like all so-called Republican values.
Back in the 1970’s we were making our own active solar hot water panels and rockbeds under homes designed to use passive solar. Upon Reagan’s election, having used the same dirty techniques of today to roust Carter out, he pulled the solar panels off the White House, all of us were audited by the IRS for collecting our legal solar tax rebates, and political action on energy change was set back 40 years.
New awareness about the climate destruction has brought innovation and urgency on energy changes. The news about mass extinctions and climate disasters are reported, but action is limited by the dangerous political/business/religious/prejudice/media alliance. Hell in the here and now is being created willfully. Homo stupidus on many levels is a better species name for this moment in history.
We humans have destroyed the planet in ways we yet do not collectively know. We as an autocratically led species cannot mitigate it. In fifty years, those of our kids and grand kids left will be dealing with unimaginable crisis and societal breakdown. So this asinine Republican festival of greed cannot be described other than genetic dementia, mass murder or suicide.
The only thing we can do now as a people is rise up and fast. Our survival depends on using science and understanding ecology to save what is left.
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I wonder it this will drive enough young people to the polls to defeat der trumper.
Anybody see any data?
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Yep, Saint Ronnie was really one ignorant son of a bitch.
When I was in jr high school science decades ago we would learn about Svante Arrhenius, the scientist who predicted global warming and melting icecaps approx. 125 years ago. I weep for my progeny and their wee bairns.
https://www.termpaperwarehouse.com/essay-on/Global-Warming-Swedish-Scientist-Arrhenius/21191
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