Can the World Beat Climate Change Without the U.S.?
With Donald Trump creating a leadership void, other countries must build on the momentum of the Paris agreement.
By Abby Rabinowitz
February 28, 2017
For anyone with an interest in ensuring our planet remains livable, the news of late could not be more dire. Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, questions the right of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions! CPAC conservatives hold a panel on fake climate news! President Donald Trumps proposed budget will axe tens of billions of dollars from the EPAs budget! And in a pending executive order that will nix most Obama-era carbon regulations, the only thing that kept the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement off the list was reportedly the whim of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
Meanwhile, in the Antarctic, a record-size crack is growing in the continents fourth-largest ice sheet. In California, people are enduring record floods, and in New York City, were wearing shorts in February. Fresh off of 2016, yet another hottest year on record, Americans are worrying about climate change in record numbers.
To tackle the problem, we need an immediate, massive globalized mobilization on the order of World War II. Instead, weve got Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, begun dismantling environmental protections against dirty coal, and installed cabinet heads whose meh stance on climate science is a new form of denial. The timing of Trumps election, just days after the Paris Climate Agreement entered into force, is both tragic and absurd. Trump, after all, campaigned on a promise to cancel the accord. It has prompted an urgent question: Over the next four to eight years, can the world meet its greenhouse gascutting goals withoutor despitethe U.S. federal government?
This is a complex and speculative question. But it is one worth exploring, if only to avert apocalyptic levels of despair. Because even a brief exploration suggests that all is not lostat least, not yet.
https://newrepublic.com/article/141000/can-world-beat-climate-change-without-us
Mosby
(16,168 posts)The question is can the world beat climate change without the support of China, India and Russia and the answer is no.
Frankly the war against climate change was lost some time ago, what needs to be done now is to start preparing for rising sea levels.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/china-s-war-on-air-pollution-may-cause-more-global-warming/
BeckyDem
(8,361 posts)each day on climate change and am stunned by the challenges we are up against.
StevieM
(10,499 posts)BeckyDem
(8,361 posts)This winter, depending on where you live, has been telling.
Time to start thinking about how to adapt and survive.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)adaptation to reverse the progression of climate change. Much of business and many metamillionaires and billionaires are now on board. They didn't factor in and were as horribly shocked as anyone else that the voters put these hyenas in charge of our nation.
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)the collapse of agriculture will be worse. Combine the two and watch the collapse of nations as desperate people try to find a safe place to go when there aren't any. Those liberal pinkos at the Pentagon deemed climate change the biggest threat to national security more than a decade ago and yet somehow Congress and Republicans in general Just Don't Get It.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2004/feb/22/usnews.theobserver
But yeah, I agree the non-existent war on climate change was lost long ago--without a shot being fired really. We're just rearranging deck chairs now.