BY GARY EDMONDSON
“Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago.” Thus spake 15-year-old Greta Thunberg of Sweden in early December during the United Nations sponsored COP 24 climate talks in Poland.
Yes, Trumpistas and Apostles of Ignorance, you are being held accountable right now by the young-uns you dismiss as collateral damage to your filthy profits.
On Dec. 5, Lydia O’Connor of the Huffington Post reported: “Global carbon emissions are expected to reach a record high this year, dashing hopes that such pollution could finally be coming to a standstill … ”
“ … The expected increase is largely driven by a rise in coal use, the study found. The two biggest contributors to the coal emissions increase in 2018 were China and India. The United States led with the largest decline, a phenomenon the report’s authors attribute to the closing of more than 250 coal-fired power plants since 2010.
“But the U.S. isn’t in the clear. Emissions here still went up 2.5%, due to oil use and higher demands for cooling and heating.”
And our pro-pollution president has even threatened to use military ports to export dirty coal to the rest of the world – since sensible West Coasters have balked at rigging their ports for such a purpose.
The Polish meeting was an extension of the Paris Climate Accords, which bases its findings on science, and is thus decried and denied by fast-buck bunco artists such as the president and Oklahoma’s two U.S. senators.
Some countries have smarter leaders. Andrea Germanos reported Dec. 5 in Common Dreams that Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir was calling “for all progressives to fight together for a ‘shared vision of democracy, prosperity, sustainability, and solidarity … to alleviate social and economic inequality, make changes to the global financial system, turn away from the arms race, and stop climate change,’ according to a Google translation of her post.”
Then, too, French President Emmanuel Macron has scoffed at Trump’s anti-science nonsense and is leading the rest of the world toward attacking the problem without the help of pro-polluting fossil fuelers from the U.S., Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
What kind of nonsense?
“The Trump Administration has held an event at a major UN climate summit to promote the use of fossil fuels in the fight against global warming,” Josh Gabbatiss of the Independent reported.
“Proceedings were interrupted by activists infuriated by the administration’s continued focus on polluting fuels.”
While countries with adult, competent leadership confront the dire threat to global habitation, our president and his polluting pals hope to hide their venality behind a deadly smog of their own creation.
Aneesa Khan, a youth delegation leader from campaign group SustainUS who was among the protesters, called the U.S.-sponsored event “a joke.”
“The U.S. elite has profited off fossil fuels for decades,” she said. “It’s time for them to pay up and support the world transition away from dirty energy.”
– Duncan resident Gary Edmondson is chair of the Stephens County Democratic Party; http://scdpok.us
