The purge and the climate
New EPA data on climate change and their consequences for Americans
Today, in a style that Stalin would have appreciated, the Republicans purged their number three for speaking the truth. It was Liz Cheney’s punishment for stating that the election was not stolen. If you are a regular reader of The Planet, the chances are that you don’t believe in that myth either.
Ms. Cheney knows a thing or two about lying to the public since she saw her father, Vice President Dick Cheney, do so about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It led to a war in Iraq that cost more than 4000 American soldiers and many more people in Iraq their lives. I suppose she decided to do better in her political career, and I must say that I admire her bravery today. I wonder what conclusions the next generations of Cheneys in politics will draw from her experience. In decades from now, historians will still write about this day and its consequences, about which we can now only speculate.
After eight years of a successful Obama presidency, America believed it was time for something else. But the experiment of putting a man in charge of the country who by all reasonable criteria would not be a suitable candidate to run your local supermarket did not go well. Letting a virus go viral that killed more Americans than Hitler was one of his many failures. In those four chaotic years, the news cycle looked like a traffic jam of scandals, so many that we all failed to keep track of what was happening. Historians will need decades to unravel the uncountable storylines of those four years.
Climate action
One of those will be climate action, a policy issue with all the ingredients to fall victim to Trumpism. It requires a basic understanding of 19th-century science about the warming impact of greenhouse gasses. It also asks for vision, new directions, effective leadership, international cooperation, and searching for win-win solutions. I believe a president also needs empathy for human suffering due to climate change. I prefer a leader who cares about the poorest in the poorest countries and vulnerable groups in American society when climate change will dramatically impact their lives.
The world lost four precious years of effective climate action when the world’s leader didn’t lead. Others raised their commitments to greener policies; countries, cities, states, businesses, and I hope you did too. But an active and positive American involvement would have helped enormously at a moment when we didn’t have a moment to lose.
Until 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was, as you might have guessed, protecting the environment. One of their tasks was to update their climate indicators regularly; under Trump, that did no longer happen. Not knowing about the increasing environmental risks was the preferred policy. If you don’t know, you can’t act, and in the meantime, you can put up more pristine environments for sale; for instance by eliminating protections for more than 2 million acres of Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
New data on EPA website
That all changed on 20 January, resulting in the first update of the EPA data in four years. I believe every American should take some time to look at these data. I can summarise, which would lead to much data about increasing wildfires, flooding, heatwaves, droughts, and much more. But I believe it is better that you browse yourself on the accessible page of the E.P.A. You can click on data under six main chapters: greenhouse gasses, weather and climate, oceans, snow and ice, health and society, and ecosystems.
For all readers, but especially Americans, it is good to know where to find these data. Click on this button:
I would be interested to hear what you believe are the essential facts that you found and their impact on your life and the lives of U.S. citizens.
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Notes:
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/12/climate/climate-change-EPA.html
Photos by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash Follow him to support his work!
I have no regard for anything related to this Cheney family but must admit to huge respect for Liz Cheney standing strong against the face of insanity among her colleagues & the fascism & destruction of America & democracy by the GOP. It’s mind boggling to see what has happened in American politics in the past few years. Perhaps even more so, the unforgivable deliberate damage to the environment.
Under the prior administration the EPA was a farce. In no way was it protecting the environment! Just the opposite! Andrew Wheeler was eagerly complicit in hiding critical information & covering up with misinformation. It’s a travesty with disastrous results.
Thank you for the EPA Climate Change Indicators button. I’m saving to read more thoroughly when I have more time. But also want to thank you & applaud this excellent article. It’s importance can’t be underestimated. You’ve written a bold & powerful piece but I expect nothing less from you.
Interesting to see the difference in the EPA website since Trump left office. Climate Change is back as a topic. Wonder if more of the population will finally agree that something is really happening to our climate. As to Liz Cheney and her stating that Trump won will cause a shift throughout the Republican Party. There already is a movement to form a third party. Time will tell if it will truly happen. Interesting article.