Why would the White House and the GOP lawmakers in the US Congress, release a 1656 page study on climate change and its consequences, paid for by US taxpayers around 2 p.m. the day after Thanksgiving? Could it be that this report puts the lie to the Republican Party denial of climate change despite all the extreme weather catastrophes that have been on the increase in recent years? Could it be that they were hoping that the study would get limited coverage due to its release during the US Thanksgiving holidays?
This will be used like a sledge hammer by the Democratic Party lawmakers during the next couple of years.
It could be brought up over and over again as a Democratic Party talking point as its legislators argue to enact infrastructure laws to mitigate for future extreme storms. Wouldn’t voters be enticed by the promise to protect power lines so that power outages become less of a problem during extreme storms? How about improvements to better water drainage due major rains? The republican party legislators continued denial of climate change will not only cause the loss of life by their constituents and their trauma due to huge property losses which ends up being a major tax burden on US citizens, just so the GOP members can kowtow to the fossil fuel industry titans because of their power hold on the GOP legislators.
Here’s the rest of the story…
On November 23, 2018, Coral Davenport and Kendra Pierre-Louis of the New York Times penned the following report, “U.S. Climate Report Warns of Damaged Environment and Shrinking Economy”
Excerpts:
“A major scientific report issued by 13 federal agencies on Friday presents the starkest warnings to date of the consequences of climate change for the United States, predicting that if significant steps are not taken to rein in global warming, the damage will knock as much as 10 percent off the size of the American economy by century’s end.”
“The report, which was mandated by Congress and made public by the White House, is notable not only for the precision of its calculations and bluntness of its conclusions, but also because its findings are directly at odds with President Trump’s agenda of environmental deregulation, which he asserts will spur economic growth.”
“Mr. Trump has taken aggressive steps to allow more planet-warming pollution from vehicle tailpipes and power plant smokestacks, and has vowed to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, under which nearly every country in the world pledged to cut carbon emissions. Just this week, he mocked the science of climate change because of a cold snap in the Northeast, tweeting, “Whatever happened to Global Warming?”
“But in direct language, the 1,656-page assessment lays out the devastating effects of a changing climate on the economy, health and environment, including record wildfires in California, crop failures in the Midwest and crumbling infrastructure in the South. Going forward, American exports and supply chains could be disrupted, agricultural yields could fall to 1980s levels by midcentury and fire season could spread to the Southeast, the report finds.”
“There is a bizarre contrast between this report, which is being released by this administration, and this administration’s own policies,” said Philip B. Duffy, president of the Woods Hole Research Center.”
“All told, the report says, climate change could slash up to a tenth of gross domestic product by 2100, more than double the losses of the Great Recession a decade ago.”
“Still, the report could become a powerful legal tool for opponents of Mr. Trump’s efforts to dismantle climate change policy, experts said.”
“This report will weaken the Trump administration’s legal case for undoing climate change regulations, and it strengthens the hands of those who go to court to fight them,” said Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton.”
“The previous report, issued in May 2014, concluded with nearly as much scientific certainty, but not as much precision on the economic costs, that the tangible impacts of climate change had already started to cause damage across the country. It cited increasing water scarcity in dry regions, torrential downpours in wet regions and more severe heat waves and wildfires.”
“The results of the 2014 report helped inform the Obama administration as it wrote a set of landmark climate change regulations. The following year, the E.P.A. finalized President Barack Obama’s signature climate change policy, known as the Clean Power Plan, which aimed to slash planet-warming emissions from coal-fired power plants. At the end of the 2015, Mr. Obama played a lead role in brokering the Paris Agreement.”
“But in 2016, Republicans in general and Mr. Trump in particular campaigned against those regulations. In rallies before cheering coal miners, Mr. Trump vowed to end what he called Mr. Obama’s “war on coal” and to withdraw from the Paris deal. Since winning the election, his administration has moved decisively to roll back environmental regulations.”
“The report puts the most precise price tags to date on the cost to the United States economy of projected climate impacts: $141 billion from heat-related deaths, $118 billion from sea level rise and $32 billion from infrastructure damage by the end of the century, among others.”
“The findings come a month after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations, issued its most alarming and specific report to date about the severe economic and humanitarian crises expected to hit the world by 2040.”
Gronda Morin 
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
MAJOR DISASTER SCENES … I’ve been hearing about environment perils since my teens. I still have the books published at the time!!
WILL ANYONE IN OFFICE CARE? … I’m afraid not!!
“A major scientific report issued by 13 federal agencies on Friday presents the starkest warnings to date of the consequences of climate change for the United States, predicting that if significant steps are not taken to rein in global warming, the damage will knock as much as 10 percent off the size of the American economy by century’s end.”
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Dear Horty,
Everyone with a brain, eyes and ears know that there is something causing more frequent and harsher extreme weather conditions which has been resulting in loss of lives, wipe out of entire areas, loss of property, businesses, etc.
I’m at a point that I don’t care what term is used in lieu of climate change. But I would love to ask these GOP politicians who are beholden to the fossil fuel industry donors, how do they explain the recent losses which have become much more expensive, a major tax increase on average Americans which can be proven by the collected data of any property insurance company.
Thanks a million times over for all of your support and for this reblog.
Hugs, Gronda
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Most welcome!! You are stronger than me!! I’m running out of steam … and spent and exhausted!! Can’t take the guy our his cronies anymore!! Hugs …
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Tump will call this “false news.” He is not one to open his mind (such as it is) to new ideas — or accept sound scientific conclusions. HE knows. The rest of us are stupid.
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Dear Hugh,
You called it. The president claims that his gut is smarter than all the scientists’ expert conclusions.
We all know that the president’s base including the Evangelical Christians are bought and paid for by the fossil fuel industry. Just like our GOP lawmakers are resistant to passing sensible gun control measures because of the NRA, they are also resistant to passing laws to fix climate change issues because of the fossil fuel industry. It does not matter that these are issues where life and death are at stake.
Hugs, Gronda
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He and his cult will cry fake news.
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Dear Mary Plumbago,
The President is already putting his spin as to why he doesn’t believe in climate change. I would love to ask him with his cult listening, how does he explain the recent losses due to extreme weather conditions which have become much more expensive, a major tax increase on average Americans which can be proven by the collected data of any property insurance company.
Hugs, Gronda
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Gronda, Dr. Donald J. Trump, Scientist extraordinaire, has already started to downplay the report saying it focuses on worst case examples. I am sure some will believe the man who says he knows it all.
Yet, the impact of climate change is happening now. Sunny day flooding is occurring in coastal cities with high tides encroaching further inshore. We are seeing worsening forest fires and droughts, more potent and larger hurricanes and weather patterns are stalling. Plus, water sources are in greater jeopardy for crops and drinking.
Then there are consequences like lobsters moving further north than Maine, Zika virus appearing in the continental US, ski resorts having to manufacture more snow, etc.
Even Trump cannot hide behind the curtain on this one. Keith
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Dear Keith,
I forgot that President Trump has an Uncle or another relative who taught at MIT which somehow makes him smart when it comes to science. Of course his gut is smarter than all the other experts that he knows.
His belief in himself has no equal. How he can visit the sites of the tragic wide spread devastation caused by the California wildfires, or Hurricane Florence, etc., and still continue to deny that something is going on that needs to be fixed? He just doesn’t care.
Your examples of the signs are right on. He has the blood of lives on his hands because of his cavalier attitude towards the suffering of others.
Hugs, Gronda
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