By Karen Rubin, News-Photos-Features.com, editor@news-photos-features.com
Trump continues to lie (when doesn’t he?) about the Biden-Harris administration’s outstanding relief response to a historic storm that devastated six states and took over 220 lives - so far – saying that they are spending disaster funding on illegal migrants while neglecting Republican areas, and ignoring Republican governors – all debunked by the governors themselves. But the damage of his disinformation adds to the extreme despair of the millions impacted. He doesn’t care – he went down to a Georgia community the day after, diverting resources and personnel away from rescue and recovery, so he could have a photo-op and have a soapbox upon which to make his false charges. He doesn’t care.
And don’t forget that Trump tried to pressure Speaker Johnson to shut down government rather than pass a budget resolution and had he been successful there would have been no federal workers to mobilize to provide emergency response. Now, with Hurricane Helene already costing $34 billion, and Hurricane Milton barreling down on Florida, and FEMA expecting to run out of funds in the next week, 35 Republican Senators rejected allocating more funds for FEMA while Speaker Johnson is refusing to take up more funding until after the election – clearly expecting the suffering and hardship to be blamed on Biden-Harris and Democrats and not the traitorous Republicans.
Georgia Congressperson Marjorie Taylor Greene, reprising her “Jewish lasers” conspiracy, said “they caused it” (unclear whether referring to Jews, Democrats and/or Liberals) but actually she ignorantly, inadvertently inconveniently acknowledged humans are causing climate change. This is now undeniable, but still, Trump continues to call climate change a “hoax,” somehow manufactured to the benefit of China and to line the pockets of Trump haters (as opposed to the Big Oil donors he promised he would “drill baby drill” and sweep away the Biden’s historic climate actions if they ponied up $1 billion), and does all he can to undermine climate actions.
And even as Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gladly accept federal aid, they have all but banished climate change from government policy.
In May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed legislation removing the requirement for the state to consider climate change in crafting energy policy or set renewable energy goals and excises nearly all references to climate change in Florida law. It also outlaws offshore wind turbines in Florida waters or the construction of offshore wind facilities within a mile of the state’s coastline, removes hurdles to approving natural gas pipelines.
These Big Oil whores have done nothing to mitigate disaster or adapt their communities to be resilient. And they clearly do not see their states as part of a national or a global endeavor – doing their part to stem the forces that are heating the oceans that turn storms into super storms and cold snaps into a polar vortex - except when it comes to getting aid from someplace else. The self-proclaimed “individual responsibility” folks take no responsibility for their carbon emissions warming the planet that is causing island nations to submerge beneath the rising seas, or developing countries that have played a scant role in human-caused climate change being regularly terrorized by droughts, famines, floods, and the climate disasters that have created millions of climate refugees – including their own residents – that they so contemptuously dismiss. Indeed, the US, with 5% of the global population, is responsible for 20% of the carbon emissions causing global warming.
As Margaret Renkl wrote in the New York Times, “There Is No Climate Haven. We All Live in Florida Now.”
Every three weeks, the United States experiences an extreme weather event that produces $1 billion worth of damage, averaging $150 billion a year ($165 billion in 2022) according to the latest US National Climate Assessment, CNN reported.
In 2023, climate-related disasters cost the U.S. about 0.4% of GDP, according to a report from reinsurance giant Swiss RE. As the effects of climate change become more prevalent, those costs are only expected to grow.
“This cost represents a drag on economic growth that affects every corner of the economy, but not every community, company, or firm will be equally hit. Repeated disasters in one area may result in a dramatic spike in insurance prices for the local community or for insurers to pull out altogether. In either case, residents may choose to leave an area, driving down asset prices and depressing the local economy. Local firms will be affected directly and indirectly,” Time reported.
Climate change has already produced millions of “climate refugees”, compounding all the other crises impacting society, from health emergencies and premature death due to pollution-caused illness, heat stroke, insect-borne pandemics, to poverty and drains on economic growth because of the diversion to address the next pandemic or climate disaster.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson addresses the 2024 Clinton Global Initiative, which prioritizes climate action, environmental protection and climate justice, about the crucial role that NASA plays in assessing climate change. The Biden-Harris Administration has made a whole-of-government commitment to addressing climate change and environmental justice. “The challenge of climate crisis is here and now.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
All that had been predicted about climate change for the past decade have been coming to fore, albeit at a faster pace than forecast, especially as George W. Bush reversed the progress made by the Clinton-Gore administration, and Trump aggressively undid the significant gains of the Obama-Biden administration.
“The more the planet warms, the greater the impacts. Without rapid and deep reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, the risks of accelerating sea level rise, intensifying extreme weather, and other harmful climate impacts will continue to grow. Each additional increment of warming is expected to lead to more damage and greater economic losses compared to previous increments of warming, while the risk of catastrophic or unforeseen consequences also increases,” according to the Fifth National Climate Assessment.
But, the NCA notes, “this also means that each increment of warming that the world avoids—through actions that cut emissions or remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere—reduces the risks and harmful impacts of climate change. While there are still uncertainties about how the planet will react to rapid warming, the degree to which climate change will continue to worsen is largely in human hands. In addition to reducing risks to future generations, rapid emissions cuts are expected to have immediate health and economic benefits. At the national scale, the benefits of deep emissions cuts for current and future generations are expected to far outweigh the costs,” the NCA notes.
Ironically, I am sure that there are those who dismissed the need for climate action by refusing to accept the negative impacts were not happening here or now, will claim they are already happening so there is nothing to be done to reverse – as if to suggest things couldn’t get progressively, significantly worse year by year and not decade by decade.
“The challenge of climate crisis is here and now,” NASA Administrator and former Senator Bill Nelson told the 2024 Clinton Global Initiative.
Hurricane Helene is already expected to cost $100 billion to rebuild the roads, bridges, communities that have been decimated. But there is so much – a life’s work, a life’s savings, a life – that cannot be rebuilt, reconstructed, repaired or resuscitated.
I am frankly sick sending billions of dollars to climate change-deniers. There should be no federal disaster aid for any recovery, rebuilding, restoration project that does not take climate change and climate resiliency into account – that means you don’t build back to the shore when the Atlantic Ocean has already risen 7 inches in the last 30 years and is expected to 10-12 feet by 2050, with the Gulf Coast and Southeast rising the most, based on NASA data (visit earth.gov, and nasa.gov).
To get federal funding, you require communities to rebuild to be sustainable, eco-friendly, ergonomic and healthy, with clean, renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal) – walkable, bikeable; electric-powered cars, buses, delivery trucks, mail trucks, school buses. You rebuild affordable housing and commercial buildings with net-zero goals in mind and require sustainable agriculture, and rebuild with 21st century for a template.
The climate crisis is actually a disruption of the entire ecosystem that supports human life. And all of it is connected – greenspace; healthy living, working and recreational environments; affordable, nutritious food; clean air and water; healthy oceans. Communities need to think and plan holistically; states need to establish code (after Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord, New York State joined a coalition of states to adhere to the goals of reducing carbon emissions); and the federal government should continue what the Biden-Harris administration has put into place, funding an economic and infrastructure renaissance based on climate action.
The Federal Government (under Clinton, Obama and Biden) have done their best to initiate climate actions that have been incessantly battled back by Republicans bought and paid for by Big Oil interests and now, undermined by the Imperial Supremes’ disastrous ruling that gives ignorant, ideological judges more say than the scientists and experts in the EPA, HHS and any other federal administration or agency in setting regulations to promote environmental protection, public health and safety.
Trump has such unmitigated gall as to lie about the Biden-Harris administration response, when he whined that the reason his administration couldn’t send relief to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria was that it was separated by an ocean; his ‘relief” came in the form of tossing paper towels into a crowd and awarding a $300 million no-bid contract to a crony Montana company with ties to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Whitefish Energy to rebuild the electric grid (it didn’t).
But his lies do grave damage – just as his lies and misinformation about COVID (Inject bleach! Don’t mask!) caused hundreds of thousands of needless deaths, his cult followers may not heed government orders to evacuate or seek help, and will be that much more stressed and anxious believing they are abandoned. And yet, if Trump is so upset about how Biden is responding and claims he did it better, why does he not offer any solutions or lift a finger to help?
Indeed, his outrageous lies that the Biden-Harris administration discriminated against “Republican” communities is yet another example of Trump’s accusation being more of a confession.
Politico revealed that when he was president, Trump would refuse to provide disaster relief until he could inspect political maps showing how many people there voted for him; called for cuts to programs that help prepare, manage and mitigate wildfires and refused to give California wildfire aid until told how many people in the affected area voted for him; and dangled federal aid for Michigan if the state would reject its mail-in ballot program.
In fact, Trump has a consistent record as president: gutting FEMA, blocking critical disaster relief, and making crisis after crisis about himself while leaving families on their own and proposed budget cuts to NOAA that would have left the US unprepared for extreme weather.
Trump rolled back flooding standards to appease his wealthy donor, real estate developer Richard Lefrak; diverted $150 million in FEMA disaster funds ahead of Hurricane Dorian hitting the Southeast (remember when he used a Sharpie to change the weather map, and has had a vendetta to shut down NOAA ever since when they publicly challenged him?); threatened to veto legislation providing $5 billion in disaster relief after extreme earthquakes.
But that was only Trump’s first term. In a second term, Trump and Vance’s Project 2025 agenda proposes eliminating disaster loans to enable families and small businesses rebuild after storms and to cut assistance for hurricane victims; calls to raise FEMA’s threshold for state and local government disaster assistance; advocates privatizing FEMA’s National Flood Insurance program and rolling back emergency response spending, putting the burden for preparedness and response costs on states and localities; dismantling NOAA and eliminating the National Weather Service’s federal weather forecasting. (What would you bet he would hire Elon Musk’s Starlink and Space X to take over NASA?)
Even more dangerous is Trump and Vance’s promise to eliminate scientists and experts and experienced officials from cabinet and agencies and replace them with loyalists. It smacks of “Brownie” – who was the Commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association that George W. Bush appointed FEMA Administrator who mangled Hurricane Katrina, resulting in hundreds of needless deaths and destruction in New Orleans (he ignored the emergency call because he was at dinner, and resigned 10 days after and now has a rabid right-wing radio show, so is very possibly Trump’s pick for FEMA Administrator.)
One last thing: just imagine Donald Trump in the Oval Office, who can’t get through a paragraph or read off the teleprompter without rambling into irrelevance and who during his first term didn’t have the focus or interest to sit through a briefing which had to be condensed to a verbal paragraph rather than a written report and who can’t manage to keep classified secrets secure, having to juggle a climate disaster of historic proportions, an escalation of war in the Middle East, a Putin invasion, and an impending dock strike that would cripple the economy.
Biden is handling all of these with Harris along side. They have the people heading the agencies and the teams necessary to get the job done.
Who do you trust with your life?
See also:
If Public Health Crisis Raised by Climate Crisis Doesn’t Get Your Attention, How About Economic Cost
FACT SHEET: PRESIDENT BIDEN COMMEMORATES HISTORIC CLIMATE LEGACY DURING CLIMATE WEEK NYC
FACT SHEET: BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION’S CONTINUED RESPONSE TO HURRICANE HELENE, STATE BY STATE UPDATE
FACT SHEET: UPDATE: BIDEN-HARRIS CONTINUES LIFE-SAVING RESPONSE EFFORTS IN RESPONSE TO HURRICANE HELENE
BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION UPDATES ON HURRICANE HELENE RESPONSE IN FLORIDA, GEORGIA, OCT. 2
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