Our democracy’s departing demon has unleashed Hell on Earth. Trump has done everything in his power to destroy half a century of environmental advances.
The Christian Science Monitor reviewed the administration’s efforts in an August, 2020 article. “They’re advancing these regulatory changes that create more flexibility, but in the process they’re trying to ... reduce EPA’s authority well into the future to ever try to come back under a new administration,” says Caitlin McCoy, a staff attorney at the Harvard Law School’s environmental and energy law program.
In other words, they want to permanently screw up the EPA’s ability to accomplish its mission. I’m holding out hope that their sabotage will fail but we won’t know for months or years.
Regardless of its beleaguered authority, the EPA can’t undo some of the damage. The greenhouse gases emitted as a result of loosened regulations will remain in the ecosystem for decades, according to a New York Times article from Nov, 10.
The Times article goes on to state that a long-feared threshold of atmospheric gases has been crossed. So now many of the most damaging effects of climate change, including rising sea levels, deadlier storms, and more devastating heat, droughts and wildfires, are irreversible.
Even if President Biden succeeds in re-implementing lower carbon dioxide emissions, it will take two years to legally finalize them.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 majority of conservatives (a strange misnomer for those defending nature abuse) could block or hamper Biden’s executive actions to reverse Trump’s destruction and re-instate regulations.
So what should we do — just party like it’s 2099?
Joe Biden has said he will put the United States back in the Paris Agreement. This modest worldwide accord about controlling climate chaos is just a start but we need to do it and take a leadership role in world eco-politics, which the US has been sadly absent from.
Another thing we can do is organize ourselves and push politicians to enact meaningful legislation for environmental protection. We need to take protection of the planet personally, very much like Black people take it seriously each time the police murder one of them. In fact, environmental racism results in people of color getting the brunt of toxic waste sites in their neighborhoods while white areas stay unscathed. Let’s not tolerate it.
Something else we can do for the Earth is take care of each other. There are still billions of people barely eking out a living. Desperate people don’t take care of their environment. There is plenty of food for everyone. There could be shelter and health care for everyone.
Hoping for an amazing technological save is a pipe dream. Even if Elon Musk comes down to Earth with his billions of dollars, chances are slim that new inventions will reverse all our damage.
Every human can help. The days of waiting for our leaders to fix it are over.
There are a bunch of little things we can do every day, including vote with your money for greener products, and eat less meat or no meat. Meat production is an extremely inefficient use of grain and water to provide our sustenance. Meat also makes methane, a big contributor to global warming.
When we all take a turn at responsibility for our world, our world will take a turn toward recovery.
Frank Lingo, based in Lawrence, Kansas, is a former columnist for the Kansas City Star and author of the novel “Earth Vote.” Read a free excerpt at EarthVote.world. Email lingofrank@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2020
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