Trump’s Climate Change Denial Con and His Activities
I wrote before, that the plan of the Cons that Trump carries out is to act 100% like the Con is actually true. I even invented a fictitious book that Trump is writing called “The Art of the Con”. This will be made into a movie starring himself, of course, as the Supreme President. Let’s remember that Trump ran the Trump University Scam, which had multiple levels so that it could scam targets out of their life savings.
So I had the revelation today that many of the things that Trump does are to carry out the Denial Con, like that there are Clean sources of Coal energy, and that you can freely burn as much fossil fuel as you like.
One of the first demonstrations of this that I thought of, is it explains why Trump rewards the Super Bowl Champions who earn million dollar salaries and bonuses, with Cheeseburgers. Trump is really advertising that the greatest award that you can ever dream of is to have an American Cheeseburger. This message escapes most of us, but it is picked up loud and clear by all cattlemen and all beef producing grazing states. The methane emissions from Cows in Beef are large, but not in Cows for dairy, or the other meats.
Then there are the Trump property’s golf and resort weekends and vacations, which are not only free advertising for Trump properties. The trips to Mar-a-Lago involve flying what must be the world’s largest and most expensive jet, Air Force 1, along with its large burning of jet fuel. While we think that this is a boon to protect the health of our President with some exercise getting in and out of his golf cart, it is really a message to all locales and operators of the tourist trade that there should be no limits on the fossil fuels expended in these pursuits. This includes all of the airlines.
The press thinks that the reason that VP Mike Pence was suggested/ordered by Trump to travel to Trump’s Doonbeg Irish resort from Dublin to spend the night, was only to advertise Trump’s failing resort. It was also to show Europeans that driving and flying 180 miles just to spend the night at the cost of a lot of fossil fuel was the American Way. This, at a time when Europeans are shaming fliers, and praising those who spend a leisurely day taking the trains, which only generate 1/7 of the fossil fuel pollution per passenger.
I am watching the UN Youth Climate Summit, with the 16 year old climate activist Greta Thunberg from Sweden. She restores my faith that ideas and individuals can still make a difference, in a world led by fossil fuel businesses and the greedy oligarchs which profit from them. With 4 million world-wide youth demonstrators yesterday, we can depend on the youth of the world to carry on climate action, since climate change will shape their lives. This is also really what this article is about.
The rumor about the preference of Trump for old fashioned incandescent light bulbs is that his dyed blond hair and tanning machine orange face show up best under these lights. The old lights are definitely more fossil fuel burning by at least a factor of five. But, Trump maybe has been lobbied and contributed to by lighting companies who can sell many more bulbs since they don’t last as long as LEDs. It could also fit into his conservative backers, who don’t want to hear any mention of climate change, and want to stay in the old fashioned America (MAGA) in which they grew up. Yet, Trump has 62 million Twitter followers, who are definitely using much more modern equipment. I just plugged my iPhone into my TV to watch the UN climate summit. All of this high tech uses less electricity than an incandescent bulb which will still be available. The Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres is so into acting on climate change.
While it is too irrelevant in these scary and unsure times, all caused by Trump, I’m curious if Trump replaced all of the Obama era energy saving bulbs in the White House with incandescents. I seem to remember that Ronald Reagan removed solar cells from the White House. Google’s Assistant told me that President Carter installed solar panels and solar water heating on the White House in 1979. I’m also wondering it Trump keeps all the lights on all night long just to complete his Con that burning fossil fuel is better for the planet. Chief Climate Denier Will Happer has just departed from the White House. Happer was not a climate scientist, but promulgated the simplistic theory that more CO2 was better for growing things on the planet. This ignored that trees and plants and wildlife and fish found it hard to grow in droughts, being burned in fires, being drowned in floods, and being dissolved in a more acidic ocean.
It turns out that those most affected by air pollution or most prone to floods are the poor and minorities. That’s because those dangerous areas have the cheapest rental or housing costs.
Trump’s climate denial Con had to be followed up by taking away California’s waiver to establish its own fuel economy goals, along with 13 other states and Canada. This followed Trump’s halting national progress in fuel economy in 2021 at 37 mpg, instead of proceeding to Obama’s 55 mpg goal by 2025. While the cost of gasoline engines might be cheaper initially than the cost of a hybrid or battery driven car, as Trump claims, the cost of electric power is so cheap, and electric motors so efficient, that over the lifetime of a car, electric power is much cheaper than gas. The costs of gasoline powered cars also doesn’t fold in the health and environmental costs of fossil fuels. We are at a critical point on whether the cost of petroleum will be significantly raised because of the religious wars being fought in the Middle East. If so, that will drive the movement to hybrid or electric cars. While the electricity and clean electricity sectors are being increased in order to fuel electric cars, the added efficiency of hybrid cars would be a useful transition sector. It would also cut auto emissions roughly in half.
I hope you all enjoyed National Cheeseburger Day this Wednesday.
