Fiddling while Earth burns

Seemingly every month provides new evidence of human-caused climate disruption. Last month was the hottest February on record globally, shattering the record by a long shot, according to analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Nearly all climate scientists agree that the key ingredient for rising temperatures — on land and in the oceans — is the accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

That’s why the best hope of heading off catastrophic climate change lies in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, the whole basis for the 2015 Paris Agreement signed by 197 nations.

And it’s why the United States, as the world’s secondlargest emitter of carbon dioxide, pumping six billion tons into the air each year, took steps under president Barack Obama to reduce carbon pollution through the next decade by 26 per cent from 2005 levels.

Now, less than two months into his presidency, Donald Trump is acting to reverse America’s progress on climate change.

On Wednesday, the president told an audience at a former industrial plant near Detroit that he’d roll back tough standards aimed at nearly doubling the fuel economy average for cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Those regulations, developed in 2012, have proved in their first phase to be a good way to jump-start efficiency.

Trump doesn’t seem interested in alternative ways for saving the planet, only in demolishing Obama’s legacy.

If there’s any good news for the planet, it’s that Trump is president and not emperor, so the public, legislators, states and environmental groups have plenty of ways to push back against his anti-environmental agenda. Redrafting both the fuel economy standards and Obama’s Clean Power Plan would require a lengthy regulatory process of public hearings followed almost certainly by legal challenges.

In the meantime, the president ought to heed the advice of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and keep “a seat at the table” for America at global climate talks.

Shortly after Trump was elected, the president told The New York Times reporters and editors he had an “open mind” about climate change and the role of burning fossil fuels. His actions since then, however, suggest otherwise.

USA Today