At the UN’s climate change summit in Bonn (COP23), hecklers made their views known regarding the Trump regime’s promoting extended use of fossil fuels at a presentation that has been Washington’s only official appearance at the conference that began Nov. 6.
While Donald Trump’s special adviser on energy and environment, David Banks, said cutting emissions was a US priority, “energy security, economic prosperity are higher priorities”, he said. “The president has a responsibility to protect jobs and industry across the country.”
Other attendees at the summit condemned the argument.
“Promoting coal at a climate summit is like promoting tobacco at a cancer summit,” said Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and a UN special envoy for cities and climate change.
Benson Kibiti, from the Kenya Climate Working Group, said: “More coal will entrench poverty.”
[...]
The appearance of an executive from Peabody Energy, the US’s biggest coal miner, was particularly provocative. In 2016, the Guardian revealed the company had funded at least two dozen groups that cast doubt on manmade climate change and oppose environment regulations.
Fortunately, the U.S. is not without sane representation in Bonn. Besides Bloomberg, there are other American mayors and state officials there who recognize the necessity that climate activists have been pushing for quite some time, that being: We—meaning us humans—have a very limited time in which to stop emitting greenhouse gases. Not because doing so will reverse the change that is already underway. Some amount is already “baked in.”
That is, it’s going to happen now even if we were to stop our 250-year atmospheric chemistry experiment tomorrow. We just don’t know how much is baked in. But we do know one thing for certain: The faster we do stop, the chances of an insurmountable outright catastrophe are more diminished.
The malignant Trump-Kochians in charge in Washington don’t want us to stop. They have lied for four decades, funded other liars, blocked or weakened climate change-related policies, smeared scientists, and pumped megatons of cash into so-called “think-tanks” filled almost exclusively with people whose association with the dollar is a lot tighter than their association with the truth. The majority of Americans disagree with the claims of these jackals.
The message the White House regime took to Bonn is about as counterproductive as can be imagined. And even though we know their time is short, that doesn’t make their performance at the climate talks any easier to swallow. Our time to do something is short, too. Acceleration of the energy transformation already underway should be among our top priorities now. Whatever it takes.
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TWEET OF THE DAY
(Okay, I admit this isn’t a tweet from today, but it’s worth every second of the five minutes it takes to listen to it, so sue me. Thanks to Mr. Coates for saying it, to Matt Whitlock for tweeting it, and Kosack MTmofo for posting it on the weekend. MB)
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2008—Republicans Prove Once Again That They Don’t Want Votes Counted:
This is really pitiful. Republicans are in such a panic over the possibility that they will lose another senate seat when the legally-mandated recount in Minnesota is completed, they are doing everything they can to taint the results before the process even begins. The desperate moves began the day after the election when Norm Coleman declared himself the winner and laughably suggested that Al Franken forego any recount, and now, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has set up a website for "keeping a watchful eye" on the recount.
And their idea of keeping a close eye on the race? By posting deep thoughts from various conservative blogs, and deranged, fact-free opinion pieces. For example, there's a post from Power Line, that attempts to smear Minnesota's Secretary of State by using scary words like MoveOn, George Soros, and San Francisco, and some serious stupidity from Redstate's Erick Erickson, where he gives two reasons why the entire process is suspect, never mind that one of his claims has been completely debunked, and the other just a flat-out lie.
This is the kind of garbage the NRSC is relying on to preemptively call the recount results into question. And given the all-out blitz of false charges, innuendo, and disinformation the Republicans have been peddling, it's clear that they don't think Norm Coleman's 206 vote lead is going to hold up.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Roy Moore is (allegedly) a filthy pervert. I was informed that he was. But if he’s not, it doesn’t matter. Besides, I’m too distraught at all the Keurig smashing. Will Sean Spicer save the Voting Rights Act? Dotard J. Trump: best traveler in the history of history.
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