Not only is President Trump immoral, unethical, and untruthful by the standards most Americans have lived by in modern times, but he now assumes the role of destroyer of the planet in his efforts to enrich the wealthiest and powerful people with whom he surrounds himself. He mocks climate science; he is unaware of the physical processes that are currently disturbing the ecology of the biotic world; he is changing the dynamics of evolution. He sees no limits to his power.
Trump’s environmental policies are disastrous. President Trump’s policies support increasing the exploitation of fossil fuels even as humans consume more of the Earth’s resources than Nature produces. As he caters strictly to some of the material benefits of modern society, which are provided by burning fossil fuels, he shows no concern for the negative aspects of accelerated use of energy and greenhouse gas emissions, calling climate warming a “hoax.”
Scientists, in contrast, believe that continued use of fossil fuels has caused the limits of many natural planetary boundaries to be exceeded. President Trump dismisses the modest assessments of the International Panel on Climate Change by withdrawing the United States from its membership. He dismisses the technological actions proposed by Biden and Congress. His actions mean that the dire consequences of exponential growth of global heating are inevitable. Billions of people will suffer because of his focus on himself and his friends.
Now, no solutions to climate warming, loss of biodiversity, and environmental deterioration are even remotely possible. The only action left to us is to attempt to adjust humanely to the multiple disasters his sweeping proclamations will cause. I urge all of us to think deeply about how we can be kind, empathetic, and loving to all biota. I leave my environmental thinking to the words of Michael Dowd and Richard Heinberg.
Micael Dowd wrote:
1. Love;
2. Learn something new;
3. Laugh;
4. Leave a legacy;
5. Live courageously.
Richard Heinberg wrote: Sixteen Words of Advice to Young People in the 21st Century. I think they apply to all of us.
1. Learn to grow food.
2. Learn to read people.
3. Be trustworthy.
4. Learn to express yourself clearly & persuasively.
5. Consider making a commitment not to reproduce.
6. Learn to make decisions by consensus and to work collaboratively.
7. Be a person with whom others enjoy working;
8. Learn to repair and use relatively simple technologies.
9. Learn how energy works. Be able to identify the sources of energy in your environment and find ways to harness that energy to do useful work.
10. Learn to defend yourself;
11. Learn to heal the human body via nutrition, herbs, and basic emergency care.
12. Learn to recognize the subjective effects of sex hormones, dopamine, and other brain chemicals, and find ways to use their effects to help achieve goals.
13. Learn about nature.
14.Learn how to produce beauty via art, music, or movement, and how to engage others in creative, celebratory activities.
15. Learn to emotionally process trauma and grief, and to help others do so.
16. Learn when and how to use humor to release tension.
Thanks for letting me, over the last eight years, present my thoughts on environmental issues . Until this week, I still thought that we might slow and possibly adjust to the disintegration of modern civilization. But as Trump implements his environmental policies, the time to slow environmental disasters has disappeared. Our predicament has definitely shifted to how do we, personally, face the future.
Sincerely, Al