Trump Visits Two States Which He Will Help Drown

Trump has just visited two flooded states, North and South Carolina.  Scientists have just estimated that rainfall had increased by 50% for hurricane Florence due to climate change.  That means 1/3 of the rain that fell was due to climate change over what would have fallen without climate change.  This report came out before the storm stalled over these states.  I wonder if the estimate will be increased, now that most hurricanes stall before moving North.  This was a record breaking storm.

The storm occurs at the same time that Trump had relaxed on inspections of methane or natural gas pipelines, making them only once a year, rather than every six months.  Natural gas celebrated by blowing up dozens of houses in Massassachusetts, and requiring the evacuation of 10,000 houses.  Then Trump removed the requirement for oil and natural gas wells to capture and use excess natural gas for power.  Natural gas is 86 times as intense a greenhouse gas as the CO2 it could be burned to, over a 20 year period.  By that time, most of the methane is converted by the atmosphere.

This follows Trump’s abolishment of improved CAFE fuel economy standards beyond 2021.  And after Trump gave notice that the US would be the only nation to withdraw from the worldwide Paris Agreement to limit greenhouse gases.  This will occur at the end of 2020, but Trump has been removing all of the Clean Power program.

Then there was Trump’s removing pollution controls on coal plants.  Thanks for the SO2 acid rain, the NO2 smog, and the Mercury contamination.  This will keep old greenhouse gas belching coal plants going for far longer than anybody wants.  This was after his initial order allowing coal miners to pollute rivers.

Amazingly, none of the drowning people in the Carolinas accused Trump of causing future floods that they will also have to endure, due to his actions preventing climate change mitigation.  The estimates of Florence’s damages range from 60 to 170 billion, so far.  The last big storm there was only two years ago.  Florence is considered to be a THOUSAND year storm.  Last year, there were three 500 year storms in the US.

Please, President Trump, no more paper towel tosses, or wishing drowned people to have a nice day.  No more denying the 3,000 deaths that the hurricane Maria and slow cleanup caused to Puerto Rico.  Maria was the tenth most intense Atlantic hurricane ever, and the most intense one worldwide in 2017.  Get some scientists in the White House, and listen to them on the science of global warming.  Then respond to rectify your terrible actions in cancelling clean energy programs.  Or you shouldn’t dare show your face surveying hurricane damage again.  These visits will go down as your historical record, by future generations suffering from climate change caused by you.

 

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
This entry was posted in Air Quality, Autos, CAFE Standards, California Smog, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Climate Education, Climate Science, Coal, Coastal Flooding, Donald Trump, Fossil Fuel Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Hurricane Florence, Paris Climate Agreement, Regulations, Sea Level Rise, Trump Administration, Trump on Climate Change. Bookmark the permalink.

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