The perplexity of climate change.
I've been quiet here for some time. I keep meaning to post more, but lack of motivation or time or perhaps just a general malaise prevent me from doing so.A lot has happened in the last couple of years. First and foremost we have an authoritarian man-child as President of the US. I have a number of thoughts about that, and about the conspiracy of Russia involving themselves in our election, but that will wait. The most significant thing that has happened recently is Trump pulling us, the United States, out of the Paris Accords.
The Paris Accords are (briefly) a set of agreements each country drafts for themselves (each country will have different goals) to help curb the rising temperatures. There's a fund that countries contribute to, to help poorer countries meet their goals. The US was set to donate a great deal to this fund.
But all of that is for another time.
We pulled out of the Paris Accord because.... Well presumably because it was unfair to the US economically. That's one of the things we were told. It's debatable I suppose that it is or isn't, but... I'm not an economist any more than I am a climate scientist, which is where I defer back to both groups on this issue. The climatologists (and most at that) say the earth is warming due to green house gasses in the atmosphere. Economists (many, maybe even most) say that the Paris Accord will likely, in the long run, not hurt the US economy Sure, they know more than I do, though economics seems to be a bit more "fortune teller" like in it's efficacy. I'll come back to this eventually.
So maybe we pulled out because Trump (and apparently many of the GOP) believe that climate change is a hoax. That seems more likely. Not that it is a hoax, that seems very unlikely, especially when you have the military and pretty much every climate scientist employed within and without the US government saying that it is a legitimate concern. And those scientists are only some that are concerned about it. No it's more likely that Trump doesn't believe in it. His daughter Ivanka has indicated she does. But I get the impression that even she is someone that Trump barely listens to.
It's also likely that people with deep pockets have made it apparent that Trump has much to gain by pulling out. I think, honestly that is most likely, and between this and a combination of the above... here we are.
But not believing in climate change? It's odd to me. We, as a species, are able to destroy mountains. Create islands. Cut down entire rain forests bigger than Alaska (there's something you can't deny we did). But the idea that any of our actions my inadvertently be the cause of the climate to go up several degrees is beyond our scope? That just doesn't make any sense.
People have been debating this for about 15 years now... well longer, but the deniers have been taken more seriously the last 15 years. Which is funny, because before that most people accepted it, even though there wasn't as much evidence (still plenty though) as there is today. But because people with deep pockets, and heavy investments stand to lose a lot of cash if their industries are regulated and phased out the deniers have been given equal footing. And now it's a debate here in the US (and in Britain oddly enough).
I'm not going to debate. The idea that we shouldn't stop polluting because it's not hurting the climate is stupid. Even if climate change was a hoax (it's not) we should cut down our emissions because it's unhealthy. That's a no brainer. Well, it should be. Cities all over the country are chocking on air pollution, but no worries, it doesn't cause global warming so it doesn't need to be addressed?
I'll have more on this later. Probably even with links!
Labels: climate change
posted by F.G. Shaw @ 8:29 AM
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