The report urges “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” Hah, carbon taxes on oil producers? Government subsidies to speed conversion to nuclear or sustainable energy? Forced shutdown of coal-burning power stations or methane leaking gas wells or end to subsidies for industrial agriculture and livestock farming? Give up my hamburgers and pork chops? [Actually, I did that long ago, but “red meat” is not just a political cliche, it is a way of life for many humans in wealthier societies.]
Forbes is a pro-capitalist magazine, yet its report on the climate report contains this scathing paragraph: “A new report by people who know what they’re talking about, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), explains just how stupid the Trump administration’s approach to climate change is, and the impacts that failing to tackle global warming will have on businesses – and investors – around the world.”
Click here to read Forbes’s take on this latest report. They argue we must save the planet to save capitalism and wealth-making corporations. I would argue that a hurricane’s direct hit on Mara Lago might do more than any number of well-argued paragraphs in a UN report that nobody in the Trump could or would read.
Do not expect the UN’s report to have any effect on the U.S. government, Exxon, China’s coal-burning, mining of Canadian tar sands or Russia’s total dependence on oil money to fund their mafia organizations and keep Putin in power. I always end up by saying that climate change will get attention when the oil companies have to move inland from Houston and Galveston and thus ask for trillions in federal aid because of high sea levels. By then our grandkids and millions of species may already be doomed…if they aren’t already. I presume Trump’s believers are using prayer to save us all.
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