Trump's biggest blunder to date: No to climate change

Business Insider graphic

What San Francisco's waterfront could look like if no action is taken against climate change.

THERE'S NO way of parsing words to say this diplomatically: Donald Trump announced today (May 31) to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate agreement may be his stupidest action yet.

Front page of the Daily News

Stupider (is that a word?) than hiring Michael Flynn at national security chief even though the FBI and a then-cooperative President Obama warned Trump not to do it? Stupider than hiring Steve Bannon, a white supremacist, as senior advisor? Stupider than firing James Comey, who was in the middle of the investigation of the extent of Russia's role in messing around the U.S. presidential elections? Stupider than putting Betsy Devos, a woman who doesn't like public schools -  never attended a public school, never sent any of her children to public school, - in charge of the Department of Education? Stupider than - in a show of playground braggadocio - than revealing classified information to the Russians?

Yes. That's a lot of stupid, (and I can go on and on) but pulling out of the Paris climate accord hammered out after years of negotiations and signed on by every country on the planet (except Nicaragua, which actually wanted stronger sanctions, and Syria) tops them all.


"This is a reckless and foolish mistake, and our kids will pay the price.," said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resource Defense Council. "The Paris climate accord is a triumph of American leadership. It’s about doing what’s best for our people at home—spurring clean energy innovation and creating millions of good-paying jobs, while protecting our children and communities from pollution. And we got the whole world to join us.

“This is not putting America first: It’s putting fossil fuel profits ahead of the national interest," said Suh, one of the most prominent Asian/American figures in the environmental movement.'

"The world is a very complicated place these days for a lot of reasons, but climate change is the one thing the world agrees on. North Korea signed the Paris accord. Everybody agrees on this," said Suh.

An excellent article by Skeptical Science on the so-called debate over scientific evidence of man's influence on climate shows that it is really no debate at all.

This so-called debate, a fore-runner of the "fake news" strategy being employed to discredit any news artucke critical of the present administration, called for another study for a consensus on the numerous studies being used to argue for or against climate change.

What was concluded by the study by climate scientists - EXPERTS, mind you, not people off the street in disagreement - is that the so-called studies being cited by climate deniers  like Trump and EPA Secretary Soctt Pruitt, are from non-experts, as opposed by the studies by the EXPERTS, which say man is a huge factor in the warming of our planet.

"Pulling out of the Paris Agreement is an irrational decision that is a disastrous step backward, threatens the future viability of our planet for future generations, and abdicates our role of leadership," said California Sen. Kamala Harris.

We all have a stake in stemming the warming temperatures of our planet. Outside of the obvious - that we have nowhere else to go - Earth temperatures are rising faster than normal and will have disastrous impacts around the world. Among the earliest victims of climate change are the island nations such as the Philippines, Samoa, Fiji and the Maldives.

In a paper presented to a scientific gathering in Manila last month, Dr. Josefino "Joey" C. Comiso, a prominent and well-respected Filipino/American senior research scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States concluded:

"At the current rate of decline, the perennial ice in the Arctic, which has persisted in summer for at least 1,450 years, is likely to melt completely within this century and cause drastic changes in the ecology of the region and alterations in the thermohaline global ocean circulation. 

"The rate of sea level rise has increased from 2 mm/year to 3 mm/year but the main concern is the vulnerability of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets which could cause a few meters increase in sea level causing big disruptions in coastal cities around the globe. 

"Warmer sea surface temperature is also expected to cause a higher frequency of heat waves and of extreme events like super-typhoons and flooding. A warmer climate will lead to increases in areas affected by drought and fire and the loss of crop yields and biodiversity. Resiliency to catastrophic events and strategies for adaptation to our changing climate will be discussed."

Current data show an increase in sea surface heights. Scientists say this is due to the melting of ice sheets in northern portions of the globe like Antarctica and Greenland. Sea level rise by 4 to 6 meters can submerge low-lying communities like Tacloban City which stands only 3 meters above sea level.

The creation of tropical cyclones is already being recorded in areas where the phenomenon had never been observed. On Nov 8, 2013, Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), said to be the strongest storm in recorded history, devastated cities in the Visayas region.

NASA

Island nations will be the first to feel the impact of global warming.

If that sounds frightening, the impact on the smaller island nations will be even more disastrous. Kiribati, with a population of 11,000 in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, bought 20 square miles of land on Vanua Levu, one of the Fiji islands, about 2,000 km away as a possible refuge when their country goes underwater.

Other countries or islands in the Maldives, Polynesia and the Philippines will have to deal with mass migrations of people as they abandon their homes to the ocean. This drastic action will set off a chain reaction around the world dealing with climate refugees.

The United States will also suffer. Its coastal communities such as San Francisco and New York City, will have to mitigate the rise in their waterfronts, huge swaths of Florida and Louisiana will go under water including the cities of Miami and New Orleans.

The economic argument used by Trump and his supporters also ring hollow. His own economic advisors, including former Exxon chief and current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and corporate leaders like Tesla's Elon Musk and Disney's Bob Iger have argued to stay with the climate accord. Hours after Trump made his announcement, Musk and Iger resigned from Trump's council of economic advisors.

The job growth in the alternative energy industries are mushrooming and dwarfs any employment lost in coal mining jobs. 

"You look at (it) economically — I talked about fuel economy standards. Tesla was just valued as the highest-valued motor company in the U.S.," said Suh. "That means renewable energy and the clean-tech economy is really present. It’s not just some far-flung thing, both within the context of electric vehicles and within the context of wind and solar. Beyond our electricity grid, we are creating millions of new jobs in the clean and efficient energy sector. Do we need the domestic leadership out of our president and the White House and Congress to take advantage of that and grow that more, or are we going to cede that economic advantage to countries like China and India? I think that’s the larger question."

RELATED: COP21, What does it mean?

But he's turned a deaf ear to the overwhelming evidence and advice in favor of short-sighted demagoguery and the quick and fleeting "win," with his base supporters. The anti-science and anti-intelligence attitudes that have been hallmarks of his campaign and presidency thus far, preferring to tweet those positions as "leftist elitism." 

Trump's announcement will undoubtedly please his base by turning the argument away from the science of climate change to the art of the deal. He claims the U.S. is being economically screwed by the agreement, ignoring the fact that the U.S. is one of the biggest polluters in the world but has profited most from dirtying the air that contributes to the changing climate.

Trump did some bashing of China and India to justify leaving the accord saying these two Asian countries are not doing their share of cleaning up their own industries neglecting to mention that according to the Paris agreement, each country could set their own goals. He could easily have lowered the U.S. goals. (Incidently, blaming those two Asian countries  also satisfies the xenophobes who are afraid of anything foreign.)

The U.S. GDP dwarfs every other nation's, therefore it is only logical to have the country with the greatest ability to contribute, and the country that creates the much of the world's pollution do more and pay more to stem global warming.

Trump tried to appear open to renegotiations but that rings hollow because Trump knows that the other industrial countries would not agree to that. If the world had to start from scratch to reach an agreement, it could be up to the next president to finish the negotiations.

Millions of people around the world took part in the Climate Change march held last April 29.

While Trump gives his supporters what they want, the showman may just be giving them a show. Under the terms of the Paris accord, the U.S. must wait until November 2019 to formally submit his intention to withdraw. At that point, the U.S. enters a one-year waiting period before it’s formally removed. The decision could be reversed by the next president -- or even Trump himself. As a result, the issue will certainly be used against the GOP in the 2018 midterms and in the 2020 presidential election campaign.

"Whatever is agreed within the United States today, with China (the two largest sources of CO2emissions), it will not have a bearing on our future, because already, it's too late for us ... And so we are the canary. But hopefully, that experience will send a very strong message that we might be on the frontline today, but others will be on the frontline next," said Kiribati President Enote Tong in an interview on CNN.

Trump's decision is just plain ... STUPID! But hey, the U.S. is not completely alone. Thank goodness for Syria and Nicaragua to keep Trump company.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, observations, rants and raves from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd

 

Hundreds of thousands climate marchers take to the streets

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This is what you see if you go to the EPA's climate change page.

SO THIS is what democracy looks like! We resist! We build! We rise!

While hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to take part in the People's Climate March, the Trump administration took down the Environmental Protection Agency's webpage on climate change. It is being updated to reflect the views of the new administration.

In the sweltering heat of Washington DC where some estimates put the demonstration at 200,000, in the driving snow of Denver, in the pounding rain of Chicago, to the tropical climes of Hawaii, unpaid people raised their concern that the current leadership is not convinced that 95 percent of climate scientists are right when they say man is accelerating the changing climate conditions around te planet - from the massive record-breaking storms and extreme drought to the melting snowcaps.

Trump has said he thought the climate change debate was a hoax perpetuated by China. He appointed Scott Pruitt, a climate-change denier, to head up the EPA, an agency that he despises and sued a dozen times as the Oklahoma attorney general.

Some of the marchers tried to connect to the EPA website on climate change after the administration's actions were made Friday.

“As EPA renews its commitment to human health and clean air, land and water, our website needs to reflect the views of the leadership of the agency,” JP Freire, an associate administrator for public affairs, told the Guardian.

Previously, the website housed data on greenhouse gas emissions from large polluters and reports on the effects of climate change and its impact on human health.

“We want to eliminate confusion,” Freire said, “by removing outdated language first and making room to discuss how we’re protecting the environment and human health by partnering with states and working within the law.”

Climate change information gathered by previous administrations can still be accessed through some links.

Also on Friday, Trump opened up the Alaskan tundra and the ocean floor off the Eastern Seaboard for drilling.

In Washington DC, marchers surrounded the White House and for a few minutes, imitated the sound of their heart by tapping on their chests. Trump was reportedly still in side the residence. They marched to the rallying point at the Washington Monument.

Besides Washington DC, there were over 300 marches held around the world.

Around the world, people marched to bring attention to the need to address climate change.

PEOPLE'S CLIMATE MARCH

Marchers in Los Angeles

PEOPLE'S CLIMATE MARCH

Marchers in Hawaii protested the actions of the Trump administration on the environment.

For more photos, videos and articles from Saturday's People's Climate March, click here.

Drink some water and use Sunday to rest – because on Monday we need to show up for workers and immigrants walking out into the street on May Day, say organizers of the People's Climate March. 

There are lots of organizations hosting actions near you, including Beyond the Moment and Reform Immigration for America. Check them out.

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People's Climate March: Why we are marching

ON THE 100th Day of the Trump Administration, tens of thousands of people will be in the streets of Washington D.C. to show the world and our leaders that we will resist attacks on our people, our communities and our planet.

Organizers announced the People's Climant March will ‘literally’ surround the White House as it winds its way through the streets to the Washington Monument in Washington, DC on Saturday, April 29th

Tens of thousands are expected to converge on Washington, DC from virtually every state in the country. In addition, more than 250 sister marches are also planned across the country and around the world.

“At 2 p.m. on April 29th, tens of thousands of people will encircle the White House in Washington D.C. to directly confront Donald Trump and challenge those who are pursuing a right-wing agenda that destroys our environment while favoring corporations and the 1 percent over workers and communities,” said Paul Getsos, National Coordinator for the Peoples Climate Movement.

“This administration continues waging attacks on immigrants, Muslims, people of color and LGBTQI people everyday. This moment will be the highlight of a day that will begin with a march leading from the Capital to Washington Monument.”

"We will come together from across the United States to strengthen our movement. We will demonstrate our power and resistance at the gates of the White House. We will bring our solutions to the climate crisis, the problems that affect our communities and the threats to peace to our leaders in Congress to demand action", say the organizers in a press release.

Among the goals of the marchers: 

• Advance solutions to the climate crisis rooted in racial, social and economic justice, and committed to protecting front-line communities and workers. 
• Protect our right to clean air, water, land, healthy communities and a world at peace. 
• Immediately stop attacks on immigrants, communities of color, indigenous and tribal people and lands and workers. 
• Ensure public funds and investments create good paying jobs that provide a family-sustaining wage and benefits and preserve workers’ rights, including the right to unionize. 
• Fund investments in our communities, people and environment to transition to a new clean and renewable energy economy that works for all, not an economy that feeds the machinery of war. 
• Protect our basic rights to a free press, protest and free speech. 

The Peoples Climate March will near begin the Capitol, travel up Pennsylvania Avenue, and then surround the entire White House Grounds from 15th Street in the East to 17th Street in the West, and Pennsylvania Avenue in the North to Constitution Avenue in the South. The march will close with a post march rally, concert and gathering at the Washington Monument.

Trump has vowed to undo the progress this country has already made in cutting the pollution that contributes to climate change. In just his first few months, he has take executive action to reverse measures that would cut pollution from cars and power plants. And he has threatened to withdraw from the international Paris Agreement on climate change, sending precisely the wrong signal to the rest of the world—that saving our planet from devastation is somehow optional.

Trump has also made no secret of his wish to roll back or outright eliminate many of the federal protections that are crucial to ensuring public health. After appointing a vocal climate change denier and friend of the fossil fuel industry to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, the president proposed gutting that agency's budget by nearly one third: a one-two punch cynically designed to lessen the EPA's ability to do its job of enforcing our existing environmental laws.
"Trump may be ready to throw in the towel in the fight for our children’s future, but the rest of us are not. And we won’t let him do it," said Rhea Suh, president of the National Resources Defense Council in an article in Self. "On Saturday, we're going to Washington to let our voices be heard. There's absolutely no way that we'll fail to get the president's attention."

• For more details about the march in Washington DC, click here.
• To find the sister marches across the country and the world, click here.

SAVE THE DATE: People's Climate March, April 29

THE PEOPLES' CLIMATE MARCH that is occurring this Saturday, April 29, is not the first time the march has been held.

The first march in 2014 was staged in New York City and attracted 400,000 people. It has grown each year since.

This year, in the context of the Trump Administration’s climate change denying and a Congress controlled by the right-wing and the influence of the oil industry has grown even more than in the past. Trump appointed the CEO of Exxon, Rex Tillerson, as Secretary of State, and Scott Pruitt, a climate denier, heads the Environmental Protection Agency, which he has sued over a dozen times. it is clear we all must both protect the gains made in recent years, even if those have been limited gains, while we articulate and demand initiatives to move our nation to a new, clean energy economy.

RELATED:

• Earth Day more urgent this year 
• AAPI environmentalists taking part in climate march
• List of the threatened 24 national monuments

"We won’t surrender our children’s future to fossil fuel profits without a fight," said Rhea Suh, National Resources Defense Council president.

This is a moment to bring the range of progressive social change movements together, say the organizers. Pushing back against the Trump agenda and at the same time pushing forward on our vision of a clean, safe world where the rights of all people are protected and expanded means we all must work together.

The main march will be in Washington D.C., Click here for details.

Sister marches will be held throughout the United States and the rest of the globe. To find a People's Climate March near you, click here.

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Groups condemn Trump's latest Executive Order on national monuments

During the an earlier march, members of Gabriela-USA, a Filipino/American advocacy group, marched under the banner of climate change.

THE TRUMP administration issued a new executive order today (April 26) directing the Department of the Interior, led by Ryan Zinke, to review previous monument designations allowed under the 1906 Antiquities Act. 

According to White House officials, the review could bring “changes or modifications” that could open more public lands to fossil fuel extraction, harvesting of old growth forests or development.

“This is another unjust assault on our climate, environment and national heritage, a hallmark of the president’s 1st 100 days," said Rhea Suh, President, Natural Resources Defense Council. 

"These precious lands belong to all Americans. Our country holds them in trust for the benefit of all Americans, now and in the future. These monuments—and the resources and wildlife they protect—are worthy of ironclad protection because they are unique, and vulnerable to encroachment and destruction. President Trump should not try to strip away their protection. 

Indigenous leaders and climate activists have fought to gain monument designations for lands across the country to protect them from the fossil fuel industry. Areas like the Bears Ears National Monument, a 1.35-million acre area in Utah including sacred Native American lands, could be at risk for losing their protected status. 

Weeks before he left office, President Barack Obama used the Antiquities Act to create the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument off of Hawaii.which spans 582,578 square miles just west of Hawaii. It is one of the threatened sites. For a complete list of 24 threatened national monuments, click here.

RELATED:

• AAPI environmentalists take part in Peoples Climate March 
• Obama cites impact of climate change on Pacific nations

National parks like the Grand Canyon exist because of the Antiquities Act, and any move by the Trump administration to revoke protections of designated monuments will likely face challenges in court.

Last week, in a move anticipating Trump's EO, the three minority Congressional caususes -- the Asian Pacific American, Black and Hispanic -- gave notice to their fellow member of Congress that they will fight any move to remove the special designation on that are historically significant to their communities. 

"Any attempt to curtail the President’s authority to protect these places or to remove protections already put in place by other Presidents is an attack on our shared history," they said in a joint statement.

According to Reuters, the national monuments order is the first of two executive orders on energy and the environment that Trump is signing this week. On Friday, -- the 99th day of his presidency -- he’s expected to sign an order aimed at reviewing rules related to offshore drilling and the designation of areas where offshore oil and gas exploration are permitted.

The public overwhelmingly supports protecting our national parks and monuments and on Saturday, April 29, thousands of people across the country and in Washington, D.C. are expected to join the Peoples Climate March to Trump administration policies like this one and stand up for climate, jobs and justice.

"The tens of thousands gathering Saturday to march for climate action will fight his attempted sellout, and to preserve these iconic public places and the American values they represent,” said Suh.

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