But Maybe You’ll Find One In Hell
Tag Archives: global warming
“Fall on me (if it’s there for long) (it’s gonna fall)”
(To kick off 2020, the HB announces The Liminal Times, a media outlet that focuses on news that illuminates, not intimidates)
To watch news nowadays (which means to turn on your phone), you’d think we’d already set the microwave to “popcorn” when it comes to the globe. But the truth is, we are making real steps toward enlightenment regarding climate change (even if our Assassinater-in Chief refuses to acknowledge it’s getting stuffy in here). /cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66015678/AP_20003060462384.7.jpg)
But witness what those with functioning frontal lobes have done on the climate front in the past decade alone:
WE’VE CUT OUR COAL USE
In 2010, 46% of the electricity generated in the United States came from coal. Now, that share has dropped to 25%. In 2020, coal is expected to only make up 22% of our electricity generation. Part of the reason why is the increase in renewable energy sources, and the fact that because wind and solar are so cheap now, coal and natural gas can’t really compete. Another factor: how much more energy efficient we’ve become. Whether it’s our light bulbs or washing machines or computers or entire buildings, we’re using less electricity to power all of our things. According to new data from the Resources Defense Counsel, every 1% growth in our economy used to require a 1% growth in electricity. That’s no longer true; in some cities, a 1% economic growth is actually reducing how much electricity people need.
WE’VE GOTTEN RID OF OZONE-DEPLETING CHEMICALS
The Montreal Protocol, ratified in 1987, committed the world’s governments to a phase out of ozone-depleting chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. That phase out was completed in 2010. Along with helping restore the ozone layer, that action allowed us to avoid 1 degree of warming because CFCs are more powerful greenhouse gases than CO2 (though they were never as abundant as emission CO2 is). The RDC data suggests that 1 degree slowed warming by a decade. 
EMISSION STANDARDS HELPED ELIMINATE MORE THAN 400 MILLION TONS OF CO2
The Trump administration is moving to roll back emissions standards for the transportation industry, but that won’t change the fact that those standards have already eliminated more than 400 million tons of CO2 in this decade alone, according to the RDC. And electric car sales continue to surge: About 775,000 electric cars were sold in 2016. The next year, (the most recent data available), that number rose to 1.22 million, a 57% spike.
BIG BUSINESSES ARE STARTING TO GET ON BOARD
Climate activism may still seem a grassroots affair, and it’ is. But seismic change relies on global corporations to cooperate — and they have. This decade saw Google buy as much renewable energy as it uses globally. Apple made the first-ever purchase of carbon-free aluminum, and more than 700 major corporations, from McDonald’s to Microsoft, have committed to cutting emissions. And already, they’ve made verified cuts of 265 million metric tons of emissions to keep companies in line with the commitments of the Paris Agreement, despite Trump’s withdrawal. Because 100 companies are responsible for 71% of the global emissions since 1988, altered behavior by large corporations will also be an outsized part of fixing the crisis.
WE ARE AWARE, AND WE CARE
Climate change has been understood for decades by scientists and policy makers, but it wasn’t until the 2010s that the majority of the public accepted it as fact. A new study by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication found that 71% believe global warming is happening. About 47% said they were “very” or “extremely” sure of it, while only 13% believe it is not happening. 
Our president and his death cult are among the non-believers, but don’t surrender hope. Who know? Maybe Donnie Dimwit will watch another solar eclipse, blind himself and live unaware of the bills he signs. He sort of does, anyway. 
The Absurdity of The Deal
Suddenly, this all makes sense.
Donnie Dullard left reporters flabbergasted today when he announced that he was cancelling his trip to Denmark after that nation not take his offer to buy Greenland seriously.
“Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time,” Trump fat-pecked from his iPhone Tuesday night. He must have used the transcription function on the phone, or had an aide type it. No way Littlefinger could have managed to tweet that on his own, as he spelled Frederiksen’s name correctly.
But he couldn’t help but play the fool in the news conference that followed. He called the PM’s rejection rude and undiplomatic. He took particular offense that she apparently remarked the offer was “absurd.” “She wasn’t calling me absurd,” the Simpleton-in-Chief bellowed. “She was calling the United States absurd.”
Come again? For one thing, we are absurd. We put you behind the nation’s steering wheel, dumbass. Secondly, in an interview with a Danish newspaper, Frederiksen explained why she turned down Mr. Blubber. “Greenland is not Danish,” she clarified. “Greenland belongs to Greenland. I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously.”
We say the same thing to ourselves every day, Mette. Sadly, it was meant seriously, as Trumptards take everything their president says (see El Paso for reference). The New York Times ran a headline today noting the “Bewilderment and Anger” among Danes and diplomats alike over Trump’s spurned advances. The anger is understandable. But the bewilderment can be settled quickly, with an Associated Press story that ran earlier this week, and a Trump maneuver run earlier this year.
This week, the AP ran a story explaining that “Greenland is where Earth’s refrigerator door is left open, where glaciers dwindle and seas begin to rise.” The story went on to explain that New York University’s air and ocean scientists have tracked Greenland as the spot to best calculate global warming and climate change. And their findings are horrifying.
“It is so warm at Helheim Glacier, just inside the Arctic Circle, that on an August day, coats are left on the ground and (scientists) work on the watery melting ice without gloves,” the article said. “In one of the closest towns, Kulusuk, the morning temperature reached a shirtsleeve 52 degrees. The ice they are standing on is thousands of years old. It will be gone within a year or two, adding yet more water to rising seas worldwide.
“Summer this year is hitting Greenland hard with record-shattering heat and extreme melt,” it continued. “By the end of the summer, about 400 billion metric tons of ice — maybe more — will have melted or calved off Greenland’s giant ice sheet, scientists estimate. That is enough water to flood Greece a third of a meter deep.”
That’s pretty irrefutable evidence, though Donnie is doing his darnedest to refute it. Remember, in March, he appointed the twit William Happer as head of a “presidential advisory committee” on global warming. 
Trump tried to name it “The Federal Committee on Climate Security”– until he learned that, under law, federal committees must include “open meetings, chartering, public involvement, and reporting.” And that doesn’t jibe with Trump’s assertion that global warming is a Chinese hoax.
It does, however, jibe with the president’s desire to squelch scientific data. Turning Greenland into a massive real estate purchase would allow him more control over who is allowed onto the oil-rich Arctic plot. Why permit pesky scientists there when you can replace them with GOP-friendly fossil fuel interests?
Sorry, Donald. Greenland ain’t on the market. America does, however, have a bridge in Brooklyn we can sell you. Feel free to take a flying leap off it.
