Trump Kills Science, Nature Strikes Back
Photo by Edward Palmquist | CC BY 2.0
The Trump administration’s every move is marked with a strange creepiness as well as confusing messages that can only mean: They don’t get it. Their nefarious “destroy science” mentality promotes insane irreversible carbon emissions in good ole America, ultimately threatening the abilities of farmers to cope with ruinous global heat.
As scientists duck for cover from mean-spirited Orange Trumpeters, nature strikes back, emitting 220M tons of carbon from melting permafrost in Alaska. In response, Trumpeters, fighting back, have already taken the first steps towards drilling Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, thus setting the stage for oil and gas leases on 19-million-acres of “public land.” All of America owns it.
Alaskan permafrost is melting so fast that it has already hit a “tipping point,” meaning it emits carbon into the atmosphere in competition with human-caused carbon, hands-free, no more anthropogenic assistance required, self-perpetuating, a prelude to Runaway Global Warming (“RGW”), a major, very serious threat to life, especially as Trumpeters focus on making America More Drillable than ever before, feeding more, and more, and more force into gigantic arcs of methane CH4, a molecule that is 100xs more powerful at entrapping heat in the atmosphere than is CO2 during its initial stages.
Aforesaid news couldn’t be worse even if Stephen King were commissioned to write a creepy, horrifying climate change disaster film, as the horrors associated with collapsing permafrost ecosystems go far beyond the rich imagination of Stephen King.
What then are the compelling issues between Trump and science?
First and foremost, Trump distrusts, dislikes, disrespects scientists. He has a problem with well-educated people. They make him uncomfortable, fidgety, high-strung. This is only too obvious by observing his obtuse imperceptive uncultivated cabinet members, like deers in the headlights.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (“UCS”) including 6,000 scientists, the Trump administration has failed to embrace basic normal standards of acceptable science. Further to the point, and terrifyingly true, the administration is “attempting to decimate the scientific process.”
Is this the Middle Ages redux? That behavior is eerily similar to lowly punishment that the Church imposed on scientists that claimed the earth was not the center of the universe. All of which begs the question of how far back in time will Trumpeters go in pursuit of broad-based destruction of generally accepted norms of society.
Further to the point of killing science, newly appointed Trumpeters for science-based federal agencies are (1) unqualified, (2) conflicted, and (3) openly hostile to the mission of the agencies they lead. Not a joke, this is really happening.
Furthermore, the scientific foundation for acts and laws that have stood tests of time, like the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act, are undercut and mutilated. As for example, well beyond the pale, the 115th Congress (all Trumpeters) introduced 63 separate pieces of legislation to undermine the Endangered Species Act.
Federal agency scientists have been personally attacked and censored and reassigned to meaningless tasks not affiliated with their expertise and prevented from attending crucial conferences. Funding for science has been slashed.
Meanwhile, America’s scientists are migrating to France under French President Emmanuel Macron’s Make Our Planet Great Again program, which sponsors solutions for the climate. An initial group of 18 scientists have already joined Macron’s program. Thereby, America inadvertently, probably intentionally, exports science brainpower but keeps anti-science dumb heads to run critical governmental agencies based upon science. Oxymoronic, yes!
Meantime, the critical analysis that only scientists can provide has never been more crucial to sustainability of life. Going forward, either the world community accepts leadership from science to help resolve the climate crisis or it’ll be lights out, assuming it’s not already too late.
Speaking of too late, Alaskan permafrost is coming apart at the seams, same in Siberia, where the ground has already collapsed up to 280 feet in some regions. Imagine a 280-foot gaping chasm appearing out of nowhere. That’s deep. (Source: Earth Institute, Columbia University)
As of today, nobody knows what to expect from the prodigious permafrost melt off because no one has ever experienced such a rapid rate. According to the Earth Institute, permafrost is melting at a whopping 73% rate over 40 years ago. Something’s gotta give (collapse) at that rate of increase, and in point of fact, collapses are happening throughout the northern latitudes, but there’s nobody there to see it, which is why climate change is difficult to accept. It’s most obvious where nobody lives.
Nevertheless, somewhat surprisingly, the lauded Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate models fail to acknowledge permafrost emissions as a factor in climate change, thereby warranting a big fat duh!
Meanwhile, a 2-year flyover aircraft measurement of Alaska’s permafrost registered 220M tons of carbon emitting into the atmosphere. That is comparable to all emissions from U.S. commercial sectors in a single year. (Google: “We All Knew This Was Coming: Alaska’s Thawing Soils Are Now Pouring Carbon Dioxide Into The Air”)
That’s the kind of info that should hit the president’s desk marked, “Urgent – Do Something”
Global warming is impacting permafrost so dynamically that nature is now competing with humans in a race to fill up the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. There’s no gainsaying that’s horrible news, unless you’re a proponent of uncontrolled runaway global warming and sizzling temperatures, speaking of which, by all appearances, Trump is a strong advocate of impending global warming dystopianism.
In that regard, Earth has three major carbon sinks that serve to help prevent dystopia (1) permafrost, (2) forests, and (3) the ocean, meaning these three big time sinks absorb and retain carbon, but as clearly demonstrated by actual permafrost measurements in Alaska, the planet’s carbon sinks (they’re all starting to reverse) are starting to reverse course in what could be an unmitigated disaster for all of humanity. Where will people go? There’s only one Earth.
Still, nobody really knows for sure how quickly or how damaging it’ll play out. Still, put out the yellow caution flag because it’s happening way too fast for comfort.
The early warning signals of outright impending annihilation are as clear as day outrageously threatening and horribly menacing. What to do?
Answer: Find leadership.
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