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Me First
America 19th, the Planet Last
Hey, who knows? It could be the Gulf Stream collapsing or the planet eternally breaking heat records. But whatever the specifics, we're living it right now, not in the next century, the next decade, or even next year. You couldn't miss it at least so you might think if you were living in the sweltering Southwest; especially in broiling, record-setting Phoenix with 30 straight days of temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit; or in flaming Greece or western China on the day the temperature hit 126 degrees Fahrenheit or sweltering, blazing Algeria when the temperature reached an almost unimaginable 135 (yes, 135!) degrees Fahrenheit; not to speak of broiling Canada with its more than 1,000 fires now burning (a figure that still seems to be rising by the week) and its 29 million acres already flamed out; and don't forget Italy's 1,400 fires; or Florida's hot-tub-style seawater, which recently hit an unheard-of 101-plus degrees Fahrenheit. And though I'm still writing this as the month is ending, July is more or less guaranteed to set the record for the hottest month in history. And don't assume that "record" will stand for long, either.
Who even remembers that this June was the hottest since records have been kept or that July 6th was the hottest day in recorded history (and July 3rd through 6th, the hottest four days ever)? And don't be surprised if 2023 ends up setting a record for the hottest year or assume that such a record will last long on a planet where the previous eight years were the warmest ever. And if I'm already boring you, then one thing is guaranteed: you're going to be bored out of your mind in the years to come.
And with all that's burning across significant parts of southern Europe, northern Africa, Canada, and elsewhere, yet more carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere, preparing the way for a truly scorching world to come. Just keep in mind, in fact, that, by the time this piece is published, I could undoubtedly produce a startling new paragraph or two of updated, overheated horrors to send your way.
Yes, as U.N. Secretary-General Ant??nio Guterres recently put it, the era of "global warming" should be considered over, since we're now clearly living at the beginning of a time of "global boiling." And as you sit there sweating and reading this, if that doesn't strike you as extreme, consider something else: fossil-fuel companies are still bringing in staggering profits (even if poor Shell's second-quarter profits in 2023 were down to a mere $5.1 billion) as they yes! continue to expand their oil and natural gas operations globally. And can you blame them? After all, the companies whose executives have long known what their products would do to this planet and even sometimes responded by funding think tanks that promoted climate change denial, have little choice but (if you'll excuse the phrase) to cover their assets. Meanwhile, last year, China, at the forefront of the alternative energy boom now underway, also granted permits to build, on average, two new coal plants a week (while burning more coal than the rest of the planet combined).
Environmental Extremism
Now, tell me that you're not sweating at least a little and that we don't live on an increasingly extreme planet. And just to add a cheery note to that, check out blistering Texas. El Paso has had more than 41 days in a row of temperatures at or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (just short of yes, Ron! Miami at 45 while I was writing this). However, Texas's Republican-controlled legislature is now striving to dramatically curb that state's remarkable advances in solar and wind power while raising their cost, even as many of its members push for public investment in the construction of new natural gas plants (which, as a recent study indicates, could prove as greenhouse-gas dirty as coal).
Just remind me: What planet are they living on?
If, however, you truly want to see American extremism up close and personal, don't even bother to check out Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who charmingly enough launched his now-faltering presidential campaign by forswearing the "politicization of the weather." Under the circumstances, I know you won't be faintly surprised to learn that he had previously rejected the very idea of climate change as "leftwing stuff." (Of course, if the left turns out to be our future, then maybe he'll prove to be" oh, my gosh, so sorry, but what other word can I use than "right"?)
No, skip Ron. After all, if you don't happen to live in Florida, he couldn't be more skippable. Look instead at Donald Trump. Yes, our much-indicted (or soon to-be-indicted-again) former president and ("Be there, will be wild!") aspiring autocrat, who shows every sign of once again becoming the "Republican" candidate for president.
Were he indeed to become that and then also anything but unimaginable win the 2024 election and end up back in the White House, the extremity of the world we could find ourselves in might be almost beyond imagining. We're talking about the guy who claimed that, when it comes to climate change, its full effect could be uh-oh! that "the ocean will rise by 1/100th of an inch over the next 350 years." (Actually, if global temperature rise is kept to 2 degrees Celsius, the sea level near Mar-a-Lago would be expected to rise three feet by 2150, a mere 3,500 times the former president's estimate in half the time and that's if we don't truly turn out to be on a climate-boiling planet.)
Of course, should Donald Trump win not just the Republican nomination but the 2024 election, this sweltering country will have put someone back in the White House who has spent his political career mocking the very idea of global warming and supporting to the hilt the production of fossil fuels. His administration reversed, rolled back, or wiped out nearly 100 environmental rules and regulations, many related to climate change, including "Obama-era limits on planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and from cars and trucks." Meanwhile, he appointed cabinet members who openly dismissed the very idea of global warming.
And, by the way, if you want to measure the mad extremism of Republicans today, try to recall a once-upon-a-time era when they held a hardly less environmental outlook than Democrats. (It's easy to forget that it was the otherwise lamentable Republican President Richard Nixon whose administration established the Environmental Protection Agency.) If you want to measure the extremism of what can hardly be called the Republican as opposed to Trumpublican Party of 2023, check out the positions on climate change of most of its possible presidential candidates.
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