It is little secret that a fair percentage of Americans are worse than ignorant; they are either generally religious stupid or intense ideological idiots. Of course that does not mean that all religious acolytes or firmly entrenched ideologues are stupid, or ignorant for that matter. But those who consistently support agendas that are decidedly contrary to their own self-interests on religious or illogical ideological grounds forces one to question their cognitive abilities. Ignorance is another issue altogether, and although most sane human beings want to make informed decisions, there are no small number of people, particularly American people, who prefer and celebrate their own ignorance about far too many subjects.
For those who enjoy being ignorant, Thomas Gray’s poem, “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” (1742), contains a line that describes their happiness at being clueless. “Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise” may be a reasonable sensibility in the mid-18th Century, but it is not apropos for 21st Century America; especially since the oligarchs and religious freaks running the government rose to power on the public’s ignorance. Now Trump has taken another step to keep Americans, and scientists, and people concerned about the planet ignorant about the state of the environment.
It is no mystery why Trump’s pick to lead the National Aeronautic and Space and Administration (NASA), a renowned evangelical bigot and an anti-science crusader, decided that in Trump’s America, ‘Expansion Of Human Knowledge' will no longer be a primary NASA objective. No doubt the move was intended to satisfy the Dark Age religious cult running the government because their sincere belief is that humans have all the “knowledge” they need in the Christian bible; especially after it became available to the masses in the mid-15th Century.
The reason for NASA’s existence as the nation’s preeminent scientific agency is to expand human knowledge, the opposite of ignorance, by exploring Earth's atmosphere as well as outer space. But that objective represents intelligence and it will not be tolerated in Trump’s America. It is another sign that this administration does indeed want a woefully ignorant populace. And to spread that ignorance across the globe, Trump decided to abolish NASA’s greenhouse gases monitoring system. His administration believes NASA’s atmospheric monitoring is “politically correct environmental reporting” instead of what it really is - scientific research to aid in preserving American lives.
Trump has been threatening anything related to NASA's earth science budget because it included climate monitoring missions. Republicans in Congress are in collusion with Trump’s crusade after completely omitting any mention of CMS in the March spending deal because they knew Trump wanted CMS eliminated. Republicans are as guilty as Trump of killing any future American research into verifying greenhouse gas emission cuts.
As noted by energy and environment professor Kelly Sims Gallagher:
"If you cannot measure emissions reductions, you cannot be confident that countries are adhering to the agreement.”
The “Carbon Monitoring System” (CMS) is a crucial tool that “remotely tracks the world’s flow of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, oceans, and land” because it is the chemical compound contributing most to anthropogenic climate change.
Science Magazine noted that losing that critical monitoring system jeopardizes the ability to measure national emission cuts that are part of the global agreement America made with every other nation on Earth. Trump unilaterally bolted from the Paris Climate Accord because his “gut” tells him climate change is a nasty Chinese hoax concocted to destroy the United States, and because he saw it snowing on television. However, America is still part of the “agreement” whether Trump likes it or not until 2020; that is how long it will take for America’s exit to be completely formalized. But that is not going to stop Trump from trying to ruin it for the rest of the world. By ending the CMS Trump is purposely hindering, if not nearly eliminating, the rest of the planet’s attempt at making the accord succeed. He is a nasty piece of work.
A senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, Rachel Licker, told the BBC that ending CMS is a serious cause for concern:
"Being able to better track carbon is critical to evaluating efforts and policies aimed at limiting global warming and its impacts. In the long-term, dismantling the Carbon Monitoring System will adversely affect our ability to track flows of carbon through our land, oceans, and atmosphere.”
One cannot help but believe that Trump’s cancellation of the CMS was a deliberate message to the rest of the world that under Trump, the United States is intent on “weakening of the chances of developing a robust and transparent emissions monitoring system;” simply because the rest of the planet sees CMS as “something critical in building trust for the future of the Paris climate agreement.” Remember, this is Trump’s America, and if Trump’s America doesn’t like something the rest of the world embraces, Trump’s America will move proverbial heaven and Earth to ruin it for everyone. Trump is a filthy piece of work.
NASA's CMS has supported dozens of research projects since 2010 to make sense of monitoring and measurements of the world's carbon dioxide and methane emissions through satellite and aircraft instruments. It has also helped countries assess their carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Instead, Nasa under Trump will be redirecting “additional funding to support new public-private initiatives."
Like nearly everything in Trump’s America, this latest move cedes another area of global leadership to nations and human beings that embrace knowledge; particularly scientific knowledge crucial to saving the planet’s environment and climate. Fortunately for all the nations on Earth that signed on to the Paris Accord, the European Union will replace America’s leadership. Although the EU only has one carbon-monitoring satellite in operation, it has more coming on line in the near future.
It is certain that America’s loss is Europe’s gain as evidenced by the “scientific shift to Europe” from Dark Age America and the religious assault on science and knowledge. Less than six months ago France’s President Emmanuel Macron successfully “lured” 14 leading U.S. scientists to France. Mr. Macron initiated a program with a title mocking dumb Donnie Trump, “Make Our Planet Great Again,” that awarded $70 million in research grants to combat ignorance and “expand human knowledge;” something Trump, his oil industry masters, and his religious right extremists oppose unconditionally.
Maybe Trump believes that if scientists cannot measure greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, land, and oceans, they will concluded that the climate is not warming; it is what one expects from an ignoramus like Trump. But it is more likely he is doing everything in his power to sabotage the rest of the world’s effort to address what most sane human beings consider is an existential threat to human life, anthropogenic climate change.
The Earth will recover from man’s destruction over a couple centuries after humans are gone, but with Trump in the White House and a nation steeped in Dark Ages superstition and religious ignorance, it is unlikely that America can every recover.