Our fossil fuel addiction is killing us
25th July 2022 · 0 Comments
New Orleans is called the “southern-most Caribbean city” because of its tropical weather. Here, hot and often rainy weather starts in spring and runs through the fall. Temperatures rise from the 70s through the 90s, and humidity levels usually match the thermometer. As a result, meteorologists report heat indexes – temperatures that “feel like” it’s hotter than it is.
When the humidity matches high temperatures, walking outside feels like walking and breathing under hot water. Necessity is the mother of invention, so New Orleanians eat “Snowballs” (flavored machine-made fine ice) or homemade “Huckabucks” (a combination of frozen fruit-flavor syrup water) to cool down.
But triple-digit heat was rare in New Orleans until it wasn’t. Meteorologist Margaret Orr warned New Orleanians about record heat indexes in June, saying temperatures could “feel like” 111 degrees.
Last week, NBC reported that 216 million people in America would experience temps of 90 or above. While Mother Jones wrote, “Extreme Heat is Making the Fastest-Growing U.S. cities Unlivable.” The magazine reported, “More than a dozen wildfires are engulfing areas from Texas to California and Alaska, with electricity blackouts feared for places where the grid is coming under severe strain.”
And CBS reported millions in the U.S. were under heat-related warnings as “dangerous and record-breaking heat wave slams states.”
Other media outlets sounded alarms about Britain’s heatwave. “Extreme heat is baking a country woefully unprepared for the climate crisis,” CNN reported. Temperatures reached 104 degrees last Tuesday, “making it the country’s hottest day on record.” It was so hot in Britain that a runway melted at an airport.
The New York Times last week reported only one percent of London homes have fixed air conditioners (installed air units) according to a 2021 report from Britain’s Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy. British homes are constructed to keep heat in to protect citizens from year-round cold temperatures.
The chickens have come home to roost.
Former Vice President Al Gore told everyone about global warming decades ago. President Barack H. Obama warned climate change was the greatest threat to future generations during his January 20, 2015, State of the Union address. Obama’s declaration came after the planet’s warmest year as of that date. He quoted scientists who said human activities are changing the climate.
“If we do not act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, conflict, and hunger around the globe. The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security. We should act like it,” Obama warned.
There is widespread scientific consensus that climate change is driven primarily by human activity and the resulting release of greenhouse gasses into Earth’s atmosphere, Business Insider reports.
NASA reported that “Scientific evidence continues to show that human activities (primarily due to the human burning of fossil fuels) have warmed Earth’s surface and its ocean basins, which in turn have continued to impact Earth’s climate.”
“Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen,” the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports.
Today climate change is literally slapping us in the face. Global warming is real, and the Earth’s climate has reached a hot crescendo. We’re experiencing flash floods, wildfires, hurricanes and record heat.
After decades of warnings about climate change, Mother Nature is showing us better than she can tell us that the Earth is at risk of being destroyed by fire, water, and wind.
President Obama’s administration cut emissions and greenhouse gases until a certain jackass got in the Oval Office and rolled back the environmental protection regulations that the Obama Administration put in place.
Apparently, our addiction to fossil fuels is killing us. And stupid, greedy politicians are blocking climate change regulations because they’re addicted to campaign contributions from the oil, gas, energy and coal industries.
The damage done to American institutions by former president Donald J. Trump Sr. is incalculable. But his denial of climate change and his attempt to destroy the environment has already contributed to the U.S. death toll.
Trump told a Fox Business host in March 2022 that President Joe Biden and his administration are propagating a “climate hoax” and refusing to boost oil production in the U.S., and “The Green New Deal is a hoax.”
Like every other word that comes out of Trump’s mouth, his comments about climate change are propaganda lies.
Trump did more to hasten climate change in the U.S. and more damage to the American environment than any other president in recent history. The Trump administration rolled back regulations designed to combat climate change and ensure clean water and air, reversing nearly 100 environmental rules during his presidency, according to a New York Times report.
But Trump didn’t act alone. Republicans have fought Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations for decades. Most recently, the Republican-dominated Supreme Court made it harder for the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate power plants – and the decision could also impact other federal agencies, according to FiveThirtyEight, a progressive digital news platform.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat whose family made a fortune in the Coal industry, is helping Senate Republicans to obstruct President Biden’s Climate Change Agenda. Manchin claims his concerns about the deficit are the reason he can’t support stricter environmental regulations.
Hogwash.
Manchin seems to be more afraid of the demise of using coal for energy and losing millions from his coal mining business than saving American lives.
While Republicans and right-leaning corporate protecting democrats like Manchin continue to block environmental protection legislation, President Biden signed the “Executive Actions on Climate to Address Extreme Heat and Boost Offshore Wind” on July 20, 2022.
Biden did not declare climate change a national emergency. Still, his executive order recognizes that “climate change is a clear and present danger” and mandates new actions to accelerate clean energy, create jobs, and lower costs.
This hot as hell situation is the fault of politicians who love money, which is the root of all evil. Global warming is a matter of life or death. We should remember that when we’re wading in floods, running from wildfires, and voting at the ballot box.
This article originally published in the July 25, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
