The only climate-denying world leader – Donald Trump

Donald Trump will be the only climate-denying world leader Mashable, BY ANDREW FREEDMAN, 10 Nov 16 If a Donald J. Trump administration acts on the president-elect’s view that global warming’s a “hoax,” the consequences of the presidential election may echo for generations. When he’s sworn into office in January, Trump becomes the only leader of a major industrialized country to deny the existence of human-caused global warming.

This is a first for the U.S., considering that even former president George H.W. Bush signed a climate change agreement in 1992, when the issue was just emerging. Presidents Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have all pursued reductions to emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide.

In the lead-up to the election, environmental leaders and climate scientists issued apocalyptic warnings of what a Trump presidency would do to efforts to rein in global warming, given that the Paris Climate Agreement only just went into effect on Nov. 4, and is still fragile. Now, some of these same people are shellshocked, but remain resolved to opposing attempts to slow the pace of emissions cuts, which climate science says is a crucial factor in determining how much the world will warm in the next several decades.

No time to waste

The U.S. and the world can’t afford to stall or slide backwards on climate progress, according to scientific research. Studies show climate change proceeding faster than anticipated, with a narrowing window to act in order to forestall the worst impacts of global warming, such as a catastrophic increase in sea levels.

In fact, a recent U.N. report showed that if we are to have any hope of meeting the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to under 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, below preindustrial levels, emissions cuts need to become more ambitious.

The Obama administration committed to reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, and it’s expected to lay out a decarbonization plan by midcentury during the ongoing U.N. climate talks in Marrakech, Morocco.

However, to achieve these cuts, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulations on coal-fired power plants, known as the Clean Power Plan, would need to survive court challenges and be implemented by a supportive White House.

During the campaign, Trump made clear he would dismantle those regulations and others.

A Trump White House will have few checks on its power given that Republicans hold both houses of Congress, meaning that there could be significant rollbacks of EPA regulations and climate-related executive orders that could have ramifications beyond a single presidential term.

A slowdown or halt in U.S. emissions cuts would shift the climate math in favor of more severe global warming impacts. Leading environmental activist and journalist Bill McKibben emphasized that issue when reached on Wednesday, telling Mashable that “… The results of this election may eventually be measured in inches or feet of sea level rise.”

“Our job is to limit the damage, a harder job today than yesterday, but it wasn’t easy then either. Since physics is indefatigable I guess we better be too,” McKibben, a founder of the environmental group 350.org, said. Prominent climate scientist Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who leads the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said the ramifications for global climate action are dire.

The climate system doesn’t forget, and it doesn’t forgive

“The U.S. de-elected expertise and will likely show a blockade mentality now, so Europe and Asia have to pioneer and save the world,” Schellnhuber said in a statement. “Formally leaving the Paris Agreement would take longer than one Presidential term, yet of course the U.S. could simply refuse reducing national emissions which would mean a de facto exit out of international climate policy.”

He went on to say that the U.S. is “one of the world’s biggest economies, and even just four years of unbridled emission staying in the atmosphere for many hundreds years would make a substantial difference. The climate system doesn’t forget, and it doesn’t forgive.”

Environmental groups unite

Trump’s election may help unify the environmental movement in opposition to the White House, making opposition to new fossil fuel projects, anti-regulatory moves and other potential actions more intense and effective.

“This is an undeniable tragedy, but of course as organizers, our job is try and forge some sort of way ahead,” said Jamie Henn, a spokesman for 350.org, in an email on Wednesday morning.

Henn says the group will push the Obama administration to take fossil fuel projects currently undergoing review off the table, and then focus on flexing its muscles to oppose Trump’s moves…….http://mashable.com/2016/11/09/trump-climate-denier-president/#M.xO4eMvMkqu

November 11, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, politics, USA

No comments yet.

nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope