“It’s really cold outside, they are calling it a major freeze, weeks ahead of normal. Man, we could use a big fat dose of global warming!” – Donald J. Trump

By Glen Reaux

“As of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris accord and the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country.”   This was the statement made by so-called President Trump from the Rose Garden on November 5, 2019.  By our own hands, humanity has gone past the point of no return in the destruction of our world’s climate.  With the multitude of scientific evidence proving the harm that mankind has done to the planet, the undeniable consequences and impending doom that lay in the near future, the leader of the largest contributor to the problem and the most powerful country on the planet chooses money over the survival of the human race.  His statement is a reflection of the madness, greed and disease that continues to plague mankind.  If mankind is to survive and move forward into the future, our global community must now move from the acceptance of the existence of climate change to the use of  “Climate Change to Climate Survival: The Ultimate Guide.”  Unless we survive the inevitable disasters that are coming, Trump’s concern for draconian financial and economic burdens won’t even matter.

Immediately after Trump’s announcement, Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo confirmed the new policy with the issuance of the following statement.

The Trump climate change madness began on June 1, 2017, less than 5 months after Trump was sworn into the office of the president.  Since that time, despite new and alarming scientific reports and studies, the Trump Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency has rolled back Obama-era policies designed to slow global warming by reducing the nation’s carbon footprint.  The new Trump policies have also seen the roll-back and cease of enforcement of laws that have protected the nation’s water resources and other ecological resources which have in-turn led to ecological disasters.  Most recently, the hotly-protested Keystone pipeline whose construction was halted by President Obama due to fear of possible oil spills and later approved by Trump was the source of a North Dakota disaster.  In the week of November 1, 2019, the pipeline spilled 9,120 barrels of oil.  This brings the number of significant oil spills to four since the system was built a decade ago. This is much higher than the company estimated in its risk assessments before it was approved and confirms the position of environmentalists that the pipeline is a danger to the groundwater supply and aquifer that feed North Dakota and surrounding states.

In ancient Greek mythology, Gaia was the earth and its life forms personified as a primordial goddess.  In the 1970s, NASA scientist, James Lovelock developed the Gaia hypothesis which suggests that organisms co-evolve with their environment.  To put it plainly, they “influence the resources in the environment, and that environment in turn influences the animal and plant life.  In contemporary literature and theater, Gaia is the spiritual and sentient manifestation of all life on earth.  In other words, the earth on a whole is a living and breathing intelligent organism.  And like all sentient life, Gaia is fighting for its very existence.  As such, realizing the dangers presented by humankind, mother earth, based upon the on-going and ever-increasing disasters created by climate change is treating human beings as a disease.  And, to survive her onslaught of climactic antibiotics, we have to start by giving back to the earth as much as we take and hope that we have not crossed the point of no return.

In July of 2018, the Union of Concerned Scientist (UCS) published an astonishing report on the impact upon American coastal cities that will be caused by global warming coastal flooding by the end of the century.  While 80 years may appear to be off in the distant future, it is well within the reach of your children and their children.  Currently, 40% of the world’s population lives within 60 miles of coastline.  In the U.S., 39% of the population lives in counties directly on the coastline.  According to the report, a minimum of 40 American cities will be severely impacted. The following cities will either be below water or dramatically impacted in 40 years (2060):

1. Miami Beach, Florida
2. Hoboken, New Jersey
3. Atlantic City, New Jersey
4. Chesapeake , Virginia
5. Charleston Central, south Carolina
6. Brazosport, Texas
7. Revere, Massachusetts
8. Long Beach, New York
9. Hampton, Virginia
10. Simons, Georgia

Read the complete report.

A recent study published in the European Geosciences Union’s Earth Systems Dynamics journal describes a new and powerful climate change model that combines climate simulations with methods from statistical physics. The new model considers climate uncertainties, policymakers’ willingness to risk missing the climate targets and different climate mitigation strategies. The model also includes estimates of how carbon removal from the atmosphere might postpone what appears to be inevitable.  The study reveals alarming data related to the point of no return which could occur by the year 2027.  The following is an excerpt from an article in the Yale Environment Review⁽¹⁾ which explored the study:

“[A]ssuming a moderate mitigation strategy, a 2 degree warming threshold, and accepting a 67% likelihood of remaining below the threshold, the Point of No Return will arrive in the year 2035. If removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere is strong, the Point of No Return gets delayed to 2042. With the same assumptions but a 1.5 degree warming threshold, the Point of No Return has already passed. Greenhouse gas removal, if implemented immediately, might push the Point of No Return to 2026. For a more aggressive (fast) mitigation strategy, the Points of No Return, assuming no greenhouse gases are removed from the atmosphere, will arrive in 2027 and 2045 respectively for the 1.5 degree and 2 degree targets.”

The model reveals such a devastating reality that climate survival strategies must be developed to assure our survival as a species.  Currently, the Republican Party and its leader with his self-proclaimed “Big Brain,” Donald Trump is not just denying climate change, they are denying the globally accepted science that has proven it.  In the United States alone, each year climate change in the form of catastrophic tornadoes, apocalyptic wildfires, biblical floods and virtually ice age cold weather kills the old and young, rich and poor and destroys hundreds of billions of dollars in property.  Essential to climate survival is national security, food, water, other resources and international trade.  Such concerns have been openly expressed by the Pentagon in several reports that span more than a decade.  The Pentagon’s 2003 report, “An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security” states:

“[R]ecent research, however, suggests that there is a possibility that this gradual global warming could lead to a relatively abrupt slowing of the ocean’s thermohaline conveyor, which could lead to harsher winter weather conditions, sharply reduced soil moisture, and more intense winds in certain regions that currently provide a significant fraction of the world’s food production.”

 “The research suggests that once temperature rises above some threshold, adverse weather conditions could develop relatively abruptly, with persistent changes in the atmospheric circulation causing drops in some regions of 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit in a single decade. Paleoclimatic evidence suggests that altered climatic patterns could last for as much as a century, as they did when the ocean conveyor collapsed 8,200 years ago, or, at the extreme, could last as long as 1,000 years as they did during the Younger Dryas, which began about 12,700 years ago.”

“[As] global and local carrying capacities are reduced, tensions could mount around the world, leading to two fundamental strategies: defensive and offensive. Nations with the resources to do so may build virtual fortresses around their countries, preserving resources for themselves. Less fortunate nations especially those with ancient enmities with their neighbors, may initiate in struggles for access to food, clean water, or energy. Unlikely alliances could be formed as defense priorities shift and the goal is resources for survival rather than religion, ideology, or national honor.”

This report has been proven to be prophetic.  The recent California wildfires during the months of October and November of 2019 saw hurricane-force winds that fueled fires near Los Angeles, California and across the state destroying more than 800 structures and at one point coming as close as 50 feet from the Ronald Reagan Library before being stopped.  In Sonoma and Napa Valley, the home of some of the nation’s finest wineries and vineyards, the fires scorched more than 74,000 acres in the mountainous and wooded areas within sight of several vineyards.

For American farmers, climate change has become and will continue to be devastating for the foreseeable future.  In the spring of this year, farmers were impacted by extreme rains followed by a “bomb cyclone” that brought high winds and severe blizzard conditions, turning many American farms into lakes.  These weather events killed livestock, destroyed grain stores and left a record-shattering 20 million acres unable to be planted.  The area affected is nearly the size of the state of South Carolina.  As illustrated below, the nation’s changing precipitation patterns caused by climate change will devastate American grain crops such as wheat, corn and soybean forcing many farmers out of business.  This will be caused by failed crops and reduced exports, possibly forcing the nation to eventually rely on imported grain.  In Central America, climate change is forcing coffee farmers out of business, turning them into refugees that migrate north and attempt to enter the U. S. illegally.  In Africa, droughts across the east and the horn of Africa are destroying nations and literally starving millions of people to death annually.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)⁽²⁾, the leading scientific institution in the world has been at the forefront of climate change science.  Contrary to Trump’s disbelief in science, NASA has provided the following data:

1. Carbon Dioxide emissions are at 412 parts per million, the highest in 650,000 years
2. Global temperature is up 1.9^oF since 1880, 18 of the 19 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001
3. Arctic ice is declining at a rate of 12.8% per decade
4. Global sea levels are rising at a rate of 3.3mm per year, up 178mm (7”) over the past 100 years

The Paris Climate Agreement of 2016 was signed by representatives from 196 countries.  As of March 2019, 187 of the countries are implementing changes in the form of laws and policies designed to reach the agreement’s goals.  It is the first step by world leaders to slow, eventually, stop climate change and hopefully reverse the damage that has been caused by our greed and ignorance.  By placing the emphasis on defeating climate change, climate survival may never be realized.  However, when a country that on average has contributed 6.5 billion metric tons of CO₂ to the global problem every year since 1990 withdraws from the agreement, the Paris Agreement will fail and the planet will be doomed to develop “climate survival “ strategies instead of prevention.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency⁽³⁾:

“Since 1990, gross U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 1.3 percent. From year to year, emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy, the price of fuel, and other factors. In 2017, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased compared to 2016 levels. The decrease in CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel combustion was a result of multiple factors, including a continued shift from coal to natural gas, increased use of renewables in the electric power sector, and milder weather that contributed to less overall electricity use.”

The stated reduction in greenhouse gas emissions was a result of Obama-Era legislation and policies designed to inspire the rest of the world to follow our nation’s lead in climate change mitigation.  But, thanks to so-called President Trump’s roll-back of those policies and his refusal to enforce Obama-era environmental laws, the nation’s ecology, environment and its people are suffering.  If the future of the world remains in the hands of so-called President Trump, we are doomed.  At the recent G7 summit in France when a reporter asked: “What do you think the world should be doing about climate change…” The self-proclaimed “very big brain” Trump replied:

“I feel that the United States has tremendous wealth.  The wealth is under its feet.  I’ve made that wealth come alive.”

For your children and grandchildren to have a future, a new paradigm must be developed which hopefully will allow  humanity to avoid the catastrophic antibiotics that are being unleashed upon us by Gaia.  You, the American people must force our government to lead the world into the future or mankind which includes your immediate descendants is doomed.  Not to do so is to be as stupid as the dishonest and greedy politicians being led by Donald Trump that deny science while lining their pockets and condemning your children to a future of hardship, poverty, starvation, disease and possibly war.  If this is not done, to survive climate change you may want to follow these six steps offered by the Boston Globe⁽⁴⁾.  At Xplicit News, we sadly call it the Ultimate Guide:

1. Relocate immediately
2. Change jobs – don’t become a farmer or fisherman
3. Be rich – when the topography or weather changes, you can afford to move on to greener pastures
4. Reduce your need for clean water and air
5. Don’t get attached to each other
6. Avoid having children and grandchildren – that way you can avoid having to explain to them how you let this happen

https://www.gofundme.com/xplicit-news

Linked Sources and Documentation

1. Yale Environment Review Article: https://environment-review.yale.edu/too-little-too-late-carbon-emissions-and-point-no-return
2. Global Climate Change Vital Signs of the Planet: https://climate.nasa.gov/
3. Environmental Protection Agency: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions
4. How to survive climate change: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/12/08/how-survive-climate-change-six-easy-steps/5hiVT7b2FUMIqWeG2BOfvI/story.html

Copyright © 2019, Glen Reaux, all rights reserved