In one corner we have the leader of the Free World, President Donald Trump, a skeptic on global climate warming. In the other, the rest of the world, minus most fossil fuel companies and a few die-hard Republicans. Our White House last week released a major combined assessment from 13 federal departments predicting the serious impact of climate change. Mind you, this 1000+ page report came from the office run by The Donald. This week, Trump said: I DON'T BELIEVE IT! Missed it? See that here.
Does this really matter? Of course. So what will happen? Maybe nothing much, for a Pew poll earlier this year showed Dealing with Climate Change near the bottom of American priorities, and note the "other" 30% in the right column, which adds to the irrelevance factor:
States like California and Hawaii are leading the effort to overcome the Federal government by beginning to take unilateral steps to reduce the effects of climate change. Is this smart? Yes, in some ways, but mostly no.
Yes because you need to begin planning now to minimize the potential effects of sea level rise, farming, whatever. But individual entities cannot spend much money to themselves reduce fossil fuel burning or increase car mileage standards. By doing so, they will become non-competitive economically relative to those who don't. The bottom line is that every country will need to together commit.
Donald Trump is from his viewpoint, correct in saying, why should we take steps when China and India won't. It's not fair. The argument from these and other countries, however, is that the USA has profited from releasing all those greenhouse gases, and it is only appropriate for them to do also until their economies catch up.
The Paris Agreement allows for this delayed-timing factor. That is at the root of the disagreement. There is no right or wrong. Trump long ago announced his intention to withdraw. However, those who put this plan together were smart. The earliest any country can drop out is November of 2020. Guess what happens that month? Donald Trump is up for re-election. I will guarantee you that over the next 23 months global warming will become enough of an issue to help determine the winner on 3November2020.
-
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น