Trump’s unwavering assault on climate change and its science has reached a point where it can be said that the President is guilty of crimes against humanity.
Climate change is real, regardless of what the fossil fuel industry says. This Spring’s weather is clear and ample evidence that climate change is not a hoax. The recent history of our weather and the vast amount of research done by EPA, NASA, NOAA, USGS along with other government departments is the foundation of climate change science. Altering the methods for fact gathering and analysis, as Trump has done all along. However, now he is increasing his savagery against freedom of information, science and truth.
The United Nations issued a stark warning, in September 2018, that stated that we have only 10-12 years to make drastic changes to our energy use and adapt our nation to the threats facing us. These threats include all the weather we’ve seen last winter and this spring; blizzards, high winds, heavy snowfall in areas that don’t normally see snow, torrential rains across the country, flooding, and during the last 30 days, 500 reports of tornadoes.
-The devastation of Midwestern crops due to flooding and late planting, will drive down yields and drive up prices on food and a variety of other products. This will create, if the weather continues to sour into summer, food shortages here and in other parts of the world. The threat to food supplies occurs around the world, compounding the resulting hunger, starvation, disease and death.
Trump, on the other hand, has chosen to obstruct our access to critical, life saving information, as well as, introducing new ways to analyze climate data so that the results are incomplete and corrupted; fake information. Without complete, legitimate data on our weather and climate we are blind to what is happening. We are left defenseless to the devastation of Climate Change.
Besides the farmers and insurance companies, the military needs accurate timely information to make long-term plans and act in effective ways. Every US naval base located by the ocean is in danger of sea level rise, which was just updated from 3 foot to at least 6 foot by end of century. And now, a growing number of scientists are concluding that sea level rise will be significantly higher than projected.
Yet, Trump is intent on destroying our ability to observe and collect detailed information about our weather and climate. This makes accurate analysis, planning, and effective action impossible.
A consequence is that weather predictions are less accurate, increasing the danger to the public. Everyone will be more vulnerable to weather events and, those industries that depend on stable weather such as agriculture and construction, will be even more vulnerable.
Trump’s crimes aren’t restricted to the US. Scientists around the world depend on the work done by our government agencies. Without solid data, the rest of the world is made defenseless to the erratic brutality of global weather.
Trump’s actions put millions of Americans at immediate risk. In addition, he exposes hundreds of millions of other people to disaster. We only need to look at the disaster relief Trump provided the people of Puerto Rico to see what the rest of us can expect when we are hit with floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and the like.
Is intentionally hiding and distorting the science necessary to understand and combat climate change, and thus saving thousands of lives here and around the world, a crime against humanity? The situation will only get worse with greater death and destruction. In addition, climate change has its own timetable independent of what we think. At some point, not too far off, the climate will slip into an unstoppable warming cycle that will make all of life, including humans, impossible. We will become extinct.
Aren’t Trump’s actions that threaten life on Earth crimes against humanity?