by Tom Molloy
The most consequential election in our lifetime
Not only is democracy and rule of law at great risk if Trump gets back in, but the survival of our planet hinges on it.
Bloomberg, in February, wrote that “a second Donald Trump presidency would be a nightmare for Earth’s climate (among other things). In his first term, Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, rolled back environmental regulations, unleashed oil and gas drilling and more. His advisers seem to think he didn’t go far enough. Report after report after report quotes them planning for ‘all-out war on climate science and policies’ that will make first-term Trump look like Al Gore by comparison.”
Also, in February, The Atlantic reminded us that by noon on Inauguration Day, the Trump administration had scrubbed mentions of climate change from the White House website. By May, officials had taken down the EPA’s page laying out climate science for the general public, as well as 108 pages associated with the Clean Power Plan, the landmark Obama policy meant to curb emissions from power plants months before the Trump administration tried to repeal the policy altogether.
The Washington Post last month reported that during his four years in office, Trump aggressively targeted and rolled back more than 125 rules and policies meant to protect the environment and lower planet-warming emissions.
The Washington Post further reported that, at a rally in March 2022, Trump mocked the threat posed by sea-level rise and the nation’s concern with combating climate change. “And yet you have people like John Kerry worrying about the climate! The climate!” Trump said. “Oh, I heard that the other day. Here we are, [Russian President Vladimir Putin is] threatening us [and] he’s worried about the ocean will rise one-hundredth of one percent over the next 300 f—in’ years.” In 2019, Trump also exclusively blamed forest mismanagement for more destructive and deadly wildfires, rather than climate change. Scientists have said that no amount of forest management can stop wildfires in a more flammable world. Trump told The Washington Post’s editorial board in 2016 that he is “not a great believer in man-made climate change.” He has also long rejected climate science, sometimes calling global warming a “hoax.”
In a 2023 campaign ad, Trump promised to roll back President Biden’s electric vehicle policies and subsidies.
He is likely to once again pull the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord.
And, lastly, lets not forget his success at re-appropriating federal parks and lands during his first term, i.e. Bears Ears….
The stakes are too high! We all have to GET OUT THE VOTE!!!
