Trump’s climate policy dooms penguins, polar bears and Mar-a-Lago
If only Donald Trump would put the North and South poles on the itinerary of his next international trip, maybe our grandchildren’s future would not look so bleak. The president could spend time with the penguins and polar bears and witness firsthand the existential predicament they face as more and more of their habitat disappears with each calving glacier and shrinking block of polar ice. Surely, those comical toddling birds in their natural tuxedos and the enormous, fluffy white bears would gain his sympathy. Their plight would make him understand that climate change is a real threat and that a real leader would do something about it, right?
Maybe not.
Last week, when he shocked most of the world by announcing that the United States is pulling out of the Paris climate change accord, Trump said, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” After a visit to the ice caps, Trump would probably just say, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not penguins and polar bears.”
What Trump chooses not to believe is that the precarious situation faced by creatures at the poles today is just a precursor to the bad things that will happen to the citizens of Pittsburgh — and Peoria and Portland and Pasadena and Providence and Palm Beach — in the years to come if the steady rise in global temperatures is not mitigated. Even his own privileged grandchildren will not escape the consequences of a climate that will be increasingly inhospitable to human beings.
Of course, Trump may not care all that much about his grandchildren, because he did not even listen to his favored daughter, Ivanka, when she urged him not to quit the climate agreement. Our great narcissist-in-chief appears to care little about anything that doesn’t directly pertain to himself.
In that regard, Trump’s monumental climate change decision may have been driven, in part, by the smallest of personal peeves. A new kid on the block — France’s just-elected president, Emmanuel Macron — had outgripped him in a mano-a-mano handshake during Trump’s bumptious trip to Europe. Macron had bragged about the prolonged handclasp, even as other European leaders were openly laughing at Trump’s clownish hyper-masculinity. Scuttling the Paris deal may have been Trump’s way of saying “I’ll show you who’s tough, Macron! I’ll show you, Europe! I’ll show you, penguins and polar bears! I’ll show you, grandchildren!”
Anyway, who needs Paris with its gargoyle-infested cathedrals when Trump has his own gargoyle in the West Wing? That would be senior political advisor Stephen Bannon, the dark presence in Trump’s inner circle who prefers all-American chaos to globalist concord. Bannon urged Trump to fulfill his ultra-nationalist campaign promises and tell the climate change crowd to take their greenhouse gas benchmarks and alternative energy schemes and go for a long walk off a short dock into the ever-rising ocean.
Trump’s Rose Garden speech detailing his reasons for abandoning the Paris deal was filled with factual errors and faulty economics. At one point, he complained that the climate agreement prohibited the U.S. from expanding coal mining while setting China free to dig up all they coal they want. Not only is that not true, it fails to acknowledge the reality that China is moving quickly away from coal and into alternative energy. The Chinese know where the world economy is going and they want to be on the cutting edge (and, in the process, cut carbon emissions while making big profits). Trump, meanwhile, wants to hitch America’s future to a coal-filled cart careening into an economic dead end.
If only there were some way to make climate change personal for Trump, maybe he would reconsider his shortsighted choice. Could Mar-a-Lago be the key? It is the president’s favorite place of escape where he can play golf with his billionaire buddies and schmooze the Chinese president. But Mar-a-Lago is situated on a narrow spit of land that will be among the first pieces of Florida real estate to be submerged as sea levels rise. How can Trump let that happen?
Mr. President, you may not want to save the penguins, but don’t you want to save your favorite 18 holes on the planet?
Follow me at @davidhorsey on Twitter
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