The enemy of the people (of the world)
As reported on p19, the 2019 UN climate change conference (COP25) has become the Madrid Climate Change Conference after riots and unrest in Chile forced a change of venue for this important summit.
The UN noted that this was made possible ‘by the generous offer by the government of the Kingdom of Spain’. This year’s talks are seen as being essential to put the 2015 Paris agreement into practice and to pave the way for a conference in the UK next year at which the long-term response to the climate emergency will be decided.
In Spain the move to Madrid has been seen as a big opportunity for the country, which will host its first international environmental conference. Ecologists hope that it will give a boost to their pitch to speed up the conversion of the energy production model to renewable sources such as wind and solar power.
However, just when scientific warnings have become increasingly insistent that time is running out to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stave off the worst damages of global warming, up pops Donald Trump. On Tuesday he notified the UN that the US has begun the process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, triggering a one-year process of exiting the global climate change accord.
Mr Trump has claimed that the deal puts an unfair economic burden on the American people and it ‘fails to serve America’s interests’. He claimed the agreement would cost the US – which is responsible for around 15% of global emissions of carbon dioxide – $3tn in lost economic output and 6.5 million jobs. However, according to the BBC, a US government report released last year stated that unchecked climate change would cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars.
At the same time, Mr Trump has promised to turn the US into an energy superpower, and has attempted to sweep away pollution legislation to reduce the cost of producing gas, oil and coal – the fossil fuels that are contributing to global warming. Put into the context of the environmental emergency which exists in the world, this marks Mr Trump as an environmental fire starter. He takes selfishness, self-interest and short-termism to levels which have never been seen before.
And, of course, the US is still part of planet Earth, despite Mr Trump’s very obvious disdain for anything which exists outside his country. The US will reap – and is reaping – the consequences of the carbon economy and man’s polluting habits. It is already experiencing terrible wildfires, drought and extreme weather.
To think that somehow the US can continue to rely on fossil fuels and to actually want to reduce the cost of producing gas, oil and coal is profoundly stupid as well as being short-sighted and selfish. Mr Trump’s policies will bring major problems for his nation as well as the rest of the world.
And how do we know this? How can we be certain that Donald is a dunce, who is condemning his people to an apocalyptic future?
It seems that almost every week new evidence is provided on the damage that man is doing to the planet. And this doesn’t come from Twitter or the insane ramblings of people with small brains – it comes from the scientific community.
On Wednesday the BBC reported that a global group of around 11,000 scientists have endorsed research that says the world is facing a ‘climate emergency’. The study, based on 40 years of data on a range of measures, says governments are failing to address the crisis.
The scientists noted that without ‘deep and lasting changes’, the world is facing ‘untold human suffering’. The researchers say they have a moral obligation to warn of the scale of the threat.
“An emergency means that if we do not act or respond to the impacts of climate change by reducing our carbon emissions, reducing our livestock production, reducing our land clearing and fossil fuel consumption, the impacts will likely be more severe than we’ve experienced to date,” said lead author Dr Thomas Newsome, from the University of Sydney. “That could mean there are areas on Earth that are not inhabitable by people.”
And, in the week when Mr Trump stuck two fingers up at the rest of the world, the scientists stressed the importance of politicians ‘imposing carbon fees high enough to discourage the use of fossil fuels’ and ‘implementing massive conservation practices while also replacing oil and gas with renewables’. In short, completely the opposite of the policies set out by the US president.
“We have rising emissions, rising temperatures, and we’ve known this for 40 years and we haven’t acted – you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know we have a problem," said Dr Newsome.
The Paris accord was meant to limit the global rise in temperature attributed to emissions. It committed the US and 187 other countries to keeping rising global temperatures below 2C (above pre-industrial levels) and attempting to limit them even more, to a 1.5C rise. Without help from the US this task would seem doomed to failure.
It could be said that there is one man standing in the way the ‘world’s’ attempts to save the planet. Fortunately, there is a chance that he won’t be the most powerful man on Earth for much longer. His one-year process of exiting the Paris agreement culminates the day after the 2020 US election and whoever wins that vote could reverse the decision.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker in the House of Representatives, has indicated that her party would do just that. She condemned Mr Trump’s move as a ‘disastrous decision that sells out our children’s future’. Another famous Democrat, Al Gore hit out at those who would ‘sacrifice the planet for their greed’.
All those who want to ensure that future generations have a world they can live in will hope to see the back of Donald Trump in 2020.