“I don’t believe it.”
–President Donald Trump, when asked on the White House lawn yesterday for his thoughts on the new climate report prepared by over 300 climate scientists and policy experts spread across 13 departments and agencies of his own administration and citing thousands of peer-reviewed scientific findings
“You’re going to have to have China and Japan and all of Asia and all these other countries, you know, it addresses our country … But if we’re clean, but every other place on Earth is dirty, that’s not so good.”
–President Donald Trump, further expanding on his thoughts to say (I think) that if he did believe the report produced by his own government (which he doesn’t), he would point his finger at other countries, for example China, Japan, and a bunch of other countries in Asia he can’t remember the names of (which, unlike the United States, have not announced their intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, an agreement that seeks to bind all nations in a cooperative effort to mitigate climate change)
“…the continued warming that is projected to occur without substantial and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions is expected to cause substantial net damage to the U.S. economy throughout this century, especially in the absence of increased adaptation efforts.”
–New climate report, Summary Findings, 2. Economy
“While mitigation and adaptation efforts have expanded substantially in the last four years, they do not yet approach the scale considered necessary to avoid substantial damages to the economy, environment, and human health over the coming decades … Future risks from climate change depend primarily on decisions made today.”
–New climate report, Summary Findings, 4. Actions to Reduce Risks
“Ecosystems and the benefits they provide to society are being altered by climate change, and these impacts are projected to continue. Without substantial and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions, transformative impacts on some ecosystems will occur; some coral reef and sea ice ecosystems are already experiencing such transformational changes … without substantial and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions, extinctions and transformative impacts on some ecosystems cannot be avoided in the long term.”
–New climate report, Summary Findings, 8. Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services
“Rising temperatures, extreme heat, drought, wildfire on rangelands, and heavy downpours are expected to increasingly disrupt agricultural productivity in the United States. Expected increases in challenges to livestock health, declines in crop yields and quality, and changes in extreme events in the United States and abroad threaten rural livelihoods, sustainable food security, and price stability.”
–New climate report, Summary Findings, 9. Agriculture
“Lasting damage to coastal property and infrastructure driven by sea level rise and storm surge is expected to lead to financial losses for individuals, businesses, and communities…”
–New climate report, Summary Findings, 11. Oceans & Coasts
“Impacts from climate change on extreme weather and climate-related events, air quality, and the transmission of disease through insects and pests, food, and water increasingly threaten the health and well-being of the American people…”
–New climate report, Summary Findings, 6. Health
“In the absence of more significant global mitigation efforts, climate change is projected to impose substantial damages on the U.S. economy, human health, and the environment … It is very likely that some physical and ecological impacts will be irreversible for thousands of years, while others will be permanent.”
–New climate report, Report-In-Brief, Key Message 2: The Risks of Inaction
The President’s refusal to “believe” this report, the consensus conclusions of the best experts in his own government;
his impulse to point his finger at others like a child and abdicate responsibility for advancing policies to solve the problem when we have in our possession the tools to solve it;
his determination to continue pursuing policies that worsen the problem and, in the pursuit of ephemeral profits primarily for a tiny minority of fossil fuel executives and shareholders, put us on a course to permanently and irreversibly harm the world’s ability to support our children and future generations
is a crime against humanity.
And those of our other elected leaders
who fail to oppose him in the crime
are complicit.
#rescuethatfrog