11/4/19: Various developments, mostly bad, punctuate the news. On Monday, the president initiates formal steps to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. Fox News praises the president for leadership and efforts to protect American coal mining jobs. (See: 10/30/19; see also, the rather unspectacular results: 2/7/20.)
In an article on the cable news giant’s website, a Trump tweet is cited. In it the Science-Moron-in-Chief lists three points, none of which, if you stop to ponder the real problem, would justify his administration’s refusal to participate in global efforts to address or even admit we have a climate change issue.
Fox won’t explain it. So the blogger will have to do it,
instead.
Let’s devote a few moments to rumination. Largest carbon emission reductions? Okay, America! Good job, previous presidents!
The Clean Air Act, passed in 1963, has been a monumental success. Too bad a former coal lobbyist is now running the E.P.A., and we’re retreating from progress made in previous decades.
Biggest polluter! China! Yes. And the Chinese are paying a
price for lax environmental rules.
Unfortunately, we’re the second biggest emitter, and the second biggest per capita. If China is the Jeffrey Epstein of carbon emissions, we’re Harvey Weinstein. And it might have been wise to remain in the Paris Accord, where we might pressure the Chinese to clean up too.
What about the fact that of all the people around the world
breathing unsafe, badly polluted air, none are in the USA? That may be true. It
probably is. It’s also 100% irrelevant. Trump might just as well have announced
that he won’t ever eat lima beans. Climate change is affecting the entire
globe.
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