Wednesday 6 November 2019

Climate-change disbeliever Trump is putting wealth before planet survival

Climate change, global warming, call it what you will, HAS to become the key issue in every election in every country between now and 2050. The warning signs are now so overwhelming that even Donald Trump must have sneaking concerns that perhaps he has got it wrong, although clearly he is never going to admit it. He has now formally entered the first phase of America's withdrawal from the Paris climate-change treaty. Trump believes the historic treaty signed in 2016 was and is unfair to the US and would damage its economy. So he presumably doesn't read the latest scientific warnings or watch the ice in the Arctic melting or think anything is strange when he sees extraordinary new weather patterns around the world. I do believe that advancing technology will play a huge part in reducing the threat from global warming, such as electric cars, wind turbines and solar power for energy etc. But this will all take time and require huge investment. Right now heavily industrialised countries have to make decisions to reverse decades of complacency. Trump is a non-believer and I doubt there is anyone or anything that will convince him otherwise. He wants coal to come back in style. It is beyond belief. If he is ousted in November 2020, perhaps the Democratic successor, whoever he or she is, will make a firm commitment to lead the world on climate-change policies. But since I doubt Trump will be defeated, we're going to be stuck with his to-hell-with-the-climate-change-rubbish approach for another four years. If Boris Johnson wins the UK election on December 12, will he devote his time to investing in alternative energy resources and putting climate-change policies at the top of his agenda? No, he will surely spend his first three years devoted to Brexit and forging a new trade relationship with the EU. Jeremy Corbyn has said a Labour government would deal with climate-change, so he is not all bad, but he, too, would be immersed in Brexit and reversing the country's fortunes with socialist obsessions such as renationalising the railways and giving more power to the trade unions. Ironically, as we leave the EU, it wll probably be the European Union which will lead the way on climate change, seeing as how the US, China, Russia, India and Brazil are not going to set the right example. When Trump eventually ends his time in the White House he is going to leave behind a legacy from which the rest of the world will suffer for decades to come. Unless like with so many of his other policies, he changes his mind on global warming. No sign of that at the moment.

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