Other views: Science is not settled on global climate
“Global warming has consistently been ranked the least important issue with voters for years. This is an Acela Corridor concern, where rich liberals can whine and advocate about reducing carbon emission with zero economic blowback. For rural America, millions of Americans will be out of work. No job retraining will do any good ... and economic growth and activity could be severely curtailed. The job losses would be staggering. We’re the Saudi Arabia of coal, with enough to power our country and our economy for centuries. We’re at our most industrialized in the U.S. and air quality couldn’t be better. Sorry, the science is not settled on this matter. We’re going to hear about extreme weather in the coming days — and how President Donald Trump is some semi-God who conjured it out of thin air, or something — but we had the calmest hurricane season in 30 years back in 2013. In that same year, we experienced the quietest tornado season in 60 years.”
Ned Barnett, The (Raleigh, North Carolina) News & Observer:
“As Hurricane Florence bears down on the Carolinas this week, Trump (said), ‘We are absolutely and totally prepared.’ He may be right about federal emergency readiness — we’ll see — but he’s plainly wrong about the nation’s broader preparation for weather calamities. This president is doing the opposite of preparing. In the face of climate change that is clearly contributing to more powerful storms, droughts, floods, rising seas levels and wildfires, Trump is dropping the nation’s guard. ... In the next week or so, the president may be in North Carolina to survey the wreckage from Florence. But such damage in the future will be intensified by his own big wind that’s upending efforts to avert climate change. Call it Hurricane Donald.”
Miami Herald, editorial:
“When it comes to extreme weather, Trump is complicit. ... With depressingly ironic timing, the Trump administration announced Tuesday a plan to roll back federal rules on methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is the main component in natural gas. Drillers and transporters of the fuel were supposed to be more careful about letting it waft into the atmosphere, which is nothing more than rank resource waste that also harms the environment. The Trump administration has now attacked all three pillars of President Barack Obama’s climate-change plan. The president has cemented the GOP’s legacy as one of reaction and reality denial. Sadly, few in his party appear to care.”