Climate Change Is Too Important For A Monster Like Trump-- Or A Corrupt Hack Like Pallone

Many people say James Inhofe should be sentenced to death

Friday, we saw how a corrupt Jersey political hack, Frank Pallone-- who, as ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and has taken $135,689 in legalized bribes from Big Oil and Gas-- got into a turf war with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who is trying to revitalize a great Pelosi idea that was killed off by John Boehner in 2011, the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. When Alexandria is sworn in in January, she will be the youngest woman to ever be seated in Congress. Millennials, unlike hack politicians from Jersey with their grubby paws out for a bribe, take Global Warming seriously and consider it urgent.

If Pelosi allows Pallone, a practiced liar and delusional closet case who has been living in an alternative universe of deception and bullshit for decades, to torpedo a serious committee on Global Warming, it will send a very bad signal to millennial voters who just won Congress back for the Democrats. Much of the Democratic base is firmly-- adamantly-- behind Ocasio. None of the Democratic base outside of Middlesex and Monmouth counties has ever heard of Frank Pallone.

Yesterday, when no one was looking, the Trumpism Regime released an alarming climate science report warning of what they called "hundreds of billions of dollars" in annual losses unless the country starts taking Climate Change seriously and taking real actions NOW to adapt to current changes and slash emissions to avoid future warming. Scientists from 13 federal agencies agencies worked on the report which concludes that lives and property are already-- not in the future, NOW-- at risk in the U.S. due to climate change. Seth Borenstein, reporting for the Associated Press, wrote that the report contradicts the Asshole-in-Chief.

Al Gore: "Unbelievably deadly and tragic wildfires rage in the west, hurricanes batter our coasts-- and the Trump administration chooses the Friday after Thanksgiving to try and bury this critical U.S. assessment of the climate crisis. The President may try to hide the truth, but his own scientists and experts have made it as stark and clear as possible. The rest of us are listening to the scientists-- and to Mother Nature. The impacts of the Climate Crisis are being felt in all regions across our country-- extreme weather, heat waves, deeper and longer droughts, crop failures, strengthening wildfires, sea level rise-- and they are disproportionately borne by the most vulnerable among us. Mr. President, the majority of Americans are deeply concerned about the climate crisis and demand action. Even as local leaders are responding in the wake of fires and storms, national leaders must summon the will to respond urgently to the dire warnings of this report with bold solutions."
 

The National Climate Assessment was written long before the deadly fires in California this month and before Hurricanes Florence and Michael raked the East Coast and Florida. It says warming-charged extremes “have already become more frequent, intense, widespread or of long duration.” The report notes the last few years have smashed U.S. records for damaging weather, costing nearly $400 billion since 2015.

...“Climate change is transforming where and how we live and presents growing challenges to human health and quality of life, the economy, and the natural systems that support us,” the report says.

That includes worsening air pollution causing heart and lung problems, more diseases from insects, the potential for a jump in deaths during heat waves, and nastier allergies.

“Annual losses in some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century-- more than the current gross domestic product (GDP) of many U.S. states,” the report says. It’ll be especially costly on the nation’s coasts because of rising seas and severe storm surges, which will lower property values. And in some areas, such as parts of Alaska and Louisiana, coastal flooding will likely force people to relocate.

...Trump tweeted this week about the cold weather hitting the East including: “Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS - Whatever happened to Global Warming?”

Friday’s report seemed to anticipate such comments, saying: “Over shorter timescales and smaller geographic regions, the influence of natural variability can be larger than the influence of human activity ... Over climate timescales of multiple decades, however, global temperature continues to steadily increase.”

Releasing the report on Black Friday “is a transparent attempt by the Trump Administration to bury this report and continue the campaign of not only denying but suppressing the best of climate science,” said study co-author Andrew Light, an international policy expert at the World Resources Institute.

During a press conference Friday, officials behind the report repeatedly declined to answer questions about the timing of its release and why it contradicts public statements from Trump. Report director David Reidmiller said questions about the timing were “relevant,” but said what was in the report was more important.

Trump, administration officials and elected Republicans frequently say they can’t tell how much of climate change is caused by humans and how much is natural.

Citing numerous studies, the report says more than 90 percent of the current warming is caused by humans. Without greenhouse gases, natural forces-- such as changes in energy from the sun-- would be slightly cooling Earth.

“There are no credible alternative human or natural explanations supported by the observational evidence,” the report says.