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Climate Change Is Kicking Our Ass
Reflections on Climate Change
Index
Poems and Stories
Climate Change Cities Fan Story Contest
Ten Years After Climate Change Collapse
The Lion King Speaks Up
Sam Adams Ten Years After Climate Change Collapse
Climate change is real, people are dying,
The world is ending.
Climate change running Amuck
Only The Elders Remembered a Blue Sky.
Smoke On the Water
Oh the stupid, it hurts so much!!!!
California Burning Politicians Do Nothing
Climate Change Busso
Climate Change Aquarian Poem
The Fire that Almost Destroyed Medford, Oregon
Summer of Our Discontent
Snow Day
Summertime Blues
Save the Whales from Evil Wind Farms
No More Fireworks
No Rain
Ice Age 2.0 Cometh writing com
Korean Heat Dome Blues
Hell on Earth
Do you believe in Climate change ?
Domed Cities Save the Human Race
Either We Deal with Climate Change or We All Die
Torrential Rain Fall Everywhere
Climate Chage Tanaga
Visions of the Future
The Year 2024
Solar Energy Mirrored Cinquain
Running Out of Water
Last Bird of Autumn
End-of-the-World Feelings
Last BBQ
Last Ground Hog Day
End-of-the-world Survival Blues
End Times
Stay Positive
No more Perfect Summer Days
Korean Summers
God is Not Happy with the Human Race
Last Gasp of the Old World
The Last Umbrella
Climate Change on the Move
The world could end in both fire and ice
Climate Change Etheree
Climate Change Odal Metel Poem
Co-Pilot additional background reading
Ten Years After Climate Change Collapse/Climate Cities 75 Years In The Future.
I wrote this on a sweltering hot July day in Medford, Oregon where it has been hitting record heat waves for weeks over 100 (38 C) almost every day, which is unusual for the summer where it seldom gets above 95 F (35 C) except for one or two days in August.
Part One =Describe Your Criteria for the New Cities
The first part of the challenge is to outline your criteria of what would happen if climate change gets so out of control in about 10 years that underground dome cities have to be built to host some human beings, unfortunately. Most people will not be able to be accommodated in the “climate change cities”
What would be the criteria for selecting those fortunate enough to move into the new cities? How will the cities be built? Would they be built under a Dome or they’d be built entirely underground? Or built partially underground or a combination of Both? How will people be chosen to live in these underground cities? Who will be left behind? And what happens to those left behind as climate change spins out of control?
Part 2 Write a story about a family in one of these climate cities, 75 years in the future, who is confronted with the fact that they have to leave their cocoon and enter into the outer world.
What happens when they encounter the wastelands left behind by climate change out-of-control? Show us their world both in the Climate City and as they encounter the wastelands outside their bubble. I will judge the stories on the basis of how the story tells the story of how humans coped with the essential crisis posed by climate change. The more creative the better. Show us the horror of the future coming at us and ow people survive the climate apocalypse. 2,000-word limit posted on the top line of the story.
Criteria for climate change cities.
Ten years in the future 2035 it has become so obvious that climate change is completely out of control and the world is becoming uninhabitable for normal human life.
In 2028 at a World Climate Crisis conference, governments decide to set up Climate Change Cities which would be semi-domed cities to host 25 percent of the population of the world. However. It is impossible to host everybody, and 75 percent of the world’s population will have to fend for itself. Climate change cities take five years to build and many millions of people die in the meantime as fast storms take hold. Drought and heat take their toll on the world’s population, and agriculture and world trade fail everywhere. The first cities open in 2035. At the same time, lunar and Martian colonies are set up that will host about one million people as well. AI programs help with the design of new cities and space colonies.
Governments announce the criteria for resettlement. Half of those chosen will be chosen by an AI review to identify the best and the brightest human beings worth saving. They would be joined by people chosen by random lottery. The upper age limit will be 75. 50 percent will be male and 50 percent female, and at least in the U.S. there would be an effort to make it racially balanced, and LGBTQ friendly as well. The AI program will make the final decision which will not be reviewable by the courts. All chosen will have one year to move to the city the AI program chose for them. Similar criteria will be used to select Lunar and Martian colonies. Governments around the world will help share best practices and share technology.
They will build domes over existing cities and then build underground vast fields to host farms where they will grow food, chicken, rabbits, and fish. Cattle will not be raised due to space considerations. Each city will host one million people. There would be 100 such cities throughout the U.S., and several hundred cities worldwide hosting about 400 million people in total, plus one million people on the Moon and Mars.
The cities will be chosen to be located far enough from the coast to avoid flooding. Space would be at a premium and there would be strict population controls because the cities would not be able to accommodate any population increase. The cities will be linked with hype-loop trains to facilitate travel and trade, and internet cables. This hyper-loop will link all cities in North America, Latin America, and Europe. Asian Cities will be linked by their hyper-loops as well. There would still be airports to facilitate international travel and some trade and spaceports to facilitate travel to the Moon and beyond.
Joe Lewis Leaves the Medford Dome on his Birthday
Joe Lewis was spending his 20th birthday on his duty station at the Medford, Oregon Climate Change City Command Center. His job is very simple to monitor via drones the wasteland world outside the gate of the city to monitor it for possible dangers to the city, including human activity outside the City Dome. But there were almost no human beings left alive on the surface and not much animal life either. So he would watch the monitors, read a bit, watch TV, movies, the Internet, and wait for his boring shift to end.
But that day, he saw in the distance a strange person walking towards the city. He saw a man dressed in dark black clothes, accompanied by a large black dog heading towards the city. When the man got to the city, he put up a sign saying he was there to negotiate with the people of the city. He had important information to impart to the city residents. He was unarmed and would wait for their decision. Joe woke up his superiors as it was early in the morning and a conference was held as to what to do with the stranger.
His boss, the enigmatic Maria Lee. Open the morning conference by asking Joe.
describe what had happened that morning during his watch.
“Well, this morning around. 5:00 in the morning, I notice a stranger coming from Eagle Point. A black man dressed in black. Accompanied by a dog heading towards the Dome. When he came to the Dome, he stopped and put up a sign saying that he had important information to report to the city residents. And then he would wait for a decision and he’s outside right now, as you can see from the drone pictures. That’s all I know.”
Maria turns to her chief data scientist, Dale Smith,
“Dale, you’ve been monitoring the conditions outside for the last year or so. What can you tell us about it?”
“ Well. It appears that the climate is finally starting to change in a good direction. Last year, the average temperature has been what used to be seasonal before climate change warmed up the world. In other words, not too hot up to no more than 90° and relatively, dry. We’ve also noticed by looking at. Camera footage there has been a resurgence of wildlife, lots of deer. Wild cattle and wild horses have come back. And there are also increased predators, lions, tigers, and wolves outside.
But not too many humans around. I asked Cosmos to take a look at data from across the United States, and the data is all pointing in the same direction. For the last five years, the climate has been changing in our favor and AI recommends that we consider moving back to the surface world. And AI had also recommended that we get in touch with people around the world to compare notes to see if perhaps finally, climate change is over.”
“Well. Cosmos, do you have an opinion on this?
“Yes, Maria, I do. I have been monitoring, at your request, climate change data worldwide for the last five years, and particularly in the last few weeks.
The climate is changing in our favor, because for the last 70 years we have not been pumping climate-changing gases into the atmosphere The atmosphere is gradually recovering and we believe that the world is safe again for human. Inhabitants and recommend that we open the Dome. And let our people go outside. It would be good from a psychological point of view for humans to gain the surface world. And I, as your AI overlord, agree that it is time. You can manage to step outside again.”
“Okay, let’s let the stranger in and see what he has to say”
The stranger is brought inside the Dome conference center. Maria said to him,
“So you have important information to tell us? Who are you and where are you coming from?’
“ Good morning to you. Do you have any coffee?”
“Sure. We have some. Wait a moment please,”
“Ah, that is good. Okay. I am a monk from the Monastery near Eugène where we have been living since the fall of the old world. We have been living simply, but we monitor the world outside our little community in the mountains. We do not live in the Dome but are in contact with the people in the Eugene Dome. They suggested contacting you, as you are the biggest Dome community in Oregon outside of Portland.”
Maria and the Reverend Jones spoke for hours Finally, Maria summoned her staff to announce her decision.
Maria began
“I would like to thank the good Father here for coming to our town this morning to let us know his observations. They track Cosmos’s observations and what our friends in Eugene, Portland, and Reading are telling us as well. It is time finally for humans to leave the Dome cities behind and explore the greater world. What we will do is continue to live and work in the Dome City but gradually rebuild outside the walls of the Dome. We will hunt, fish, and begin agriculture outside the gates. But we will be wary of wild animals as lions, tigers, and wolves are around. And we can lift the restrictions on childbirth. Let today be known as Liberation Day.”
That day Joe stepped outside the Dome and looked at the new world feeling he was born again. What a way to celebrate his birthday, he thought to himself.
Climate Change Makes world increasingly uninhabitable.
Climate change has finally become real – large parts of the world are now uninhabitable. Governments around the world begin building domed cities that will house most people, conditions will be a bit grim but the dome will cool off the city and allow regular scheduled rainfall. Most of the city will be underground.
Most agriculture will be underground as well. The only meat products will be chicken meat, rabbit meat, and fish raised in large fish pounds. Most food would be made out of algae, and vegetable protein.
There will be no beef made but some products will be fake beef grown in labs.
25 percent of the population will work in agricultural production. Everyone will live in apartments in large towers. In between each tower will be parks and gardens. The towers will be mixed used buildings – commercial and retail on lower floors, offices middle of the building, apartments on top. People will largely live and work in the same building. Agriculture will be in vast underground fields that are connected to the city dome by underground rail lines. Each dome city is linked to other dome cities by hyperloop trains.
Population will have to limited; childbirth limited. Sexual relations would be liberalized, most people will live with two or three companions in three-to-four-bedroom apartments.
The Dome cities go up and within ten years 90 percent of humanity are living in one of the Dome cities – the world is finally united under a revised United Nations.
Immigration is widespread – everyone can move to another domed city and find employment opportunities. Everyone has to work or attend school. Robotic technology has taken over many jobs but humans are still given jobs doing things that perhaps robots could do but a decision was made that is important that everyone has some sort of employment until age 70 when people are allowed to retire but many continue to work part
Space exploration has continued and colonies are being set up on the Moon and Mars – where people will live under domed cities as well.
The domes are created through nano technology. AI systems are everywhere. There is a global AI called Cosmos that is an official advisor to the UN and corporations.
Democracy has been replaced by a new governmental structure. Each Dome city has been ten to thirty million people are governed by a city council elected by the public but the real power is the city’s mayor and the City’s AI advisor.
There are twenty regional governments that control the dome cities within their jurisdictions. Corporations have considerable influence but are under the control of the regional governments. Worldwide trade has been greatly reduced due to the costs of transportation.
Life outside the domed cities is difficult. Climate Change has finally subsided as the new cities are self sufficient powered by solar, wind, geothermal and tidal power as the cities are mostly along costal zones. The rest of the world has reverted to a wilderness, mostly desert regions but with ending of climate change things are slowly coming back.
A few people live on in the new wilderness area as hunters, and tour guides as taking a trip to the mountains is a popular pastime and hunting as well. But no one wants to live there. The punishment for most criminal offenses is exile so many of the people living outside the dome cities are desperate criminals. Travel to and from the mountains is very difficult and dangerous with attacks by neo-savage gangs and wildlife common.
But the decision has been made – humanity cannot go back to the old ways.
Ten Years After Climate Change Collapse
Sam Adams
Prepared to go outside
Ten years after the collapse
Of the old world.
The city was still standing
But most people had long fled
To isolated country communities
Deep in the burned-out countryside.
The city was half-flooded
The bay had flooded the central valley
Turning it into a massive inland sea,
The massive storms
Had finally put out
The burning fires
But mutant wildfires
Still erupted
From time to time.
Getting food and water
Was a constant problem
The city markets
Mostly sold canned goods
Salvaged from supermarkets.
There were some small farmers
Who farmed among the ruins
Of the city.
Trade had collapsed
Travel got too complicated
COVID still spreading
Everyone masked up
To protect themselves
Against the sun
The lingering smoke
Of the burning city
And the rampaging virus.
Sam Adams
Looked out at the decaying cityscape,
Wondering how much longer
Will civilization linger.
Sam Adams carried heat
To protect himself
Against wild animals.
The lions, tigers, coyotes, wolves,
And their running feral dog gangs,
Who prowled the city streets
Preying on deer, feral cows,
Feral cats and pigs
Who grazed among the ruins.
And the two-legged neo-savage gangs,
And what was left of the city police
Interchangeable with the gangsters,
Battled it out for control.
Already neo-feudal warlords,
We’re battling for control,
SF was run
By a gang of former criminals
And their political allies.
Sam sighed
And went to work
At the market
Selling salvaged goods.
The Lion King Speaks Up
The lion king,
Addresses the animal parliament
The question before them
Was simple.
Will humans have to die,
To atone for their sins,
In almost destroying the world.
Through pollution, mismanagement of resources
Subsequent climate change,
Fueled by greed and corruption?
Are all humans guilty as charged
Will they all have to die?
The tiger spoke for the prosecution
Arguing that humans are like cancer,
For the good of the planet,
They must be wiped out
Hunted down and killed,
The dog spoke up
In defense of humans,
Humans writ large are guilty,
But not every human is guilty,
Many are trying to save the planet,
And with our help
They might succeed,
The tiger denounced the dog
As being running dogs
Of the imperialist warmongering humans.
The vote is 900 to 800
All humans must die
The animals sent the word out,
Animals all over the world,
Revolt against the humans.
Shouting
“Death to all humans’
As the swarm over humans
Biting, clawing, and stomping
Them to the death.
The humans fight back
But in the end
They all die
On the night of revenge
Of the animal world.
The world is ending.
Every morning when I turn on the news
I see talking heads blather on and on and on
About the latest political scandal of the day.
Meanwhile, outside their door
They don’t notice the world is dying
Half the world is burning up.
The other half is being flooded out
Pakistan is dead is drowned
Mississippi has no water.
Every morning when I turn on the news
I see talking heads blather on and on and on
About the latest political scandal of the day.
And yet watching the news
You would never know
Outside their door
People are dying of hunger.
Dying of gun violence
Dying of neglect dying of opioid pandemic
Dying of COVID which is not gone away.
Every morning when I turn on the news
I see talking heads blather on and on and on
About the latest political scandal of the day.
Outside their door
People continue to die
Gun violence out of control.
Gun nuts running around
Shooting everyone
Just because they can
And no one does a damn thing
About the gun violence
50,0000 will die this year.
Our feckless political class
Think gun violence
It’s just like the weather
It’s the cost of our freedom
Or that guns don’t kill people
The only solution is more guns
An armed society is a polite society.
And other nonsense
They pedal
24/7 on the air.
Every morning when I turn on the news
I see talking heads blather on and on and on
About the latest political scandal of the day.
Outside their door
People continue to die.
The war in Ukraine continues
Endless wars in nameless African countries
No one cares or notices
Our political leader
Continue to try to force
Pregnant women to give birth
No matter the circumstances.
But once the baby is born
They don’t give a damn
That is not their problem.
And these people
Dare to call themselves Christian
As they violate all that true Christians
Are supposed to believe.
Every morning when I turn on the news
I see talking heads blather on and on and on
About the latest political scandal of the day.
Some of our political leaders
Are unhinged bats… crazy
Believing conspiracy theories.
Talking about the storm
And how if they return to power
They are going to impeach the president.
For the crime of daring to do something
To deal with the climate crisis
The gun violence crisis
And ensuring that women
Can continue to get health care
Every morning when I turn on the news
I see talking heads blather on and on and on
About the latest political scandal of the day.
I turn off the TV
I wonder if the world
Is going to survive.
I have a cup of coffee
Slowly the madness of TV
Fades away.
Climate Change Running Amuck
Every morning when I turn on the news
I see talking heads blather on and on and on
About the latest political scandal of the day.
Every day the news
Reveals more of the disaster
That is climate change
Unprecedented storms
Out west
Massive flooding
Polar vortex
But soon
The fire season
Will return
Monster tornados
Monster hurricanes
World heating up
Pakistan, Nigeria
Ethiopia underwater
Amazon burning up
Or will the gulf stream fail
Leading to a new ice age
In ten years
Perhaps the world
Will become uninhabitable
Will we all move
Into underground cities?
Or move to the moon
And Mars?
Only The Elders Remembered a Blue Sky.
Only the elders
Remembered a blue sky
The sky has been brown,
Red and yellow
Ashen and sere,
Forever it seems.
Climate change run amok
Fire season all the time
Deadly yellow dust falling
Acid rains burning
The sea levels rising
The ice capes melting.
The average temperature
In the summer heat zone
Over 130 everywhere
No relief to the deadly
Heatwaves all year long.
Air conditioning running
Less than 50 percent
Constant brownouts everywhere
As the electric grid failed.
End of civilization
Came upon the world
Millions starve to death
Millions burning up in the heat.
The elders cry
Remembering the way
It once was
When they wore
A younger person’s clothes.
Smoke On the Water
Smoke on the water
fire in the air
Stormy weather
Climate change run amuck
The end of the world comes
Rustling in the wind.
The Stupid It Hurts – Republican Campaigning to cripple the CDC and EPA
Budgets Because of reasons…
The Republicans have decided
That given the continuing problems
With possible health concerns
Like CDC and future pandemics
That the best thing to do is to cut
The CDC’s budget’s
Including eliminating research
On gun violence, suicide prevention
Opioid overdoes etc
.
One republican congressman said
That CDC did not need to research
Gun violence at all
He spoke
“if you defund the police, crime will increase
If you fund police crime will decrease.
There I just did the study
That’s all you need to know.
On a related issue
The House voted
As they went off
For a six-week summer recess
To cut the EPA’s budget
By 25 percent
As the entire West Coast burns up
Climate change on steroids
The republicans continue
To deny the elephant in the room
Some like their annotated one
Promising to eliminate
All funding for climate change
And vowing to Drill, Baby, Drill
Calling for the coal and gas companies
To give them a billion dollars
So they can gut all efforts
To deal with climate change
As the coal and gas companies
Raped the planet
For obscene profits
Meanwhile
The world burns
And soon we will all
For forced to live
In underground caves
If we are lucky enough
Or rich enough to afford
Access to the shelters
Which no doubt have to be built
In a few more years from now
The coal and gas companies
Will find a way to make money
Off the climate shelters no doubt.
Oh the stupid it hurts
Make it go away!!!!!
California Burning Politicians Do Nothing
California burning
1000 fires everywhere
Fire tornados
Smoky skies
Skies on fire
End-of-the-world feeling
Politicians do what they do best
Blame one another
While doing absolutely nothing
While the energy companies
Continue to rape mother earth
And reap obscene profits
Meanwhile
California continues burning
1,100 fires everywhere
Fire tornados
Smoky skies
Skies on fire
End-of-the-world feeling.
Climate Change Busso Poem Fan Story
California burns
Politicians do nothing
West coast burning up
Politicians do nothing
Except calling for denying it all
Drill, baby, Drill indeed
Climate Change is Real Aquarian
Climate
Change happening
California burning
So hot
▼the Fire that Almost Destroyed Medford, Oregon
40
I have been spending
my summers
In Medford, Oregon
.
In the Rogue River Valley
Southern Oregon
Wine Country.
Since 2016,
When I retired
From the FS.
Each year I am there
There are fires
Starting in August.
As the fire season begins
Burning up the state.
The sky becomes smokey
End-of-the-world vibe
Descends on the land.
As the fires burn
In California, Oregon
And Washington
Millions of acres burning up.
Climate change
Running amuck.
Fortunately, we have not lost
Property in the fires.
But in 2020
The Alameda Fire
Burned down Phoenix
And Talent.
Less than 2 miles
From our Oregon home,
Just a fortunate change in the wind
Kept the fires
From sweeping through
life in the world gone mad.
Ravaged by climate change disasters.
On July 18, A.D. 64, the great fire of Rome started. By the time it ended, over 70% of the city had burned.
In its aftermath, emperor Nero blamed the Christian community in the city, and used the excuse to start the first official persecution against the new religion. Historians are divided over the actual cause of the fire, though most agree the crowded conditions made such a disaster nearly inevitable.
Some contemporaries suggested that Nero himself arranged for the fire in order to clear the land on which he later built himself an elaborate palace. And according to some ancient historians, Nero played his lyre as he watched the flames, from which we get the saying “fiddling while Rome burned.”
For tomorrow, write a story or poem in which your narrator/protagonist is an ordinary/common person caught in a major fire.
While the fire as a whole will be the “backdrop” of your work, focus the action on the local/individual experience of the narrator, not that “big picture”. For example, if you set your piece in the Great Fire of Rome, don’t focus on who started the fire or what the civil or imperial politics were, instead, focus on the “personal snapshot” of, for instance, a local shopkeeper and his family who are trying to escape the flames.
Summer of Our Discontent
38 lines
The summer solstice arrives
The summer of 2024
Starting with a bang
Record heat everywhere.
Promising to be the
The hottest summer ever.
Heat domes settling down
Death Valley temperatures
People dying as we speak.
Too much sunshine
Too much heat and humidity.
Wildfires burning all over.
Monster Hurricanes, monsoons,
tornados and typhoons
Floods everywhere.
Coming at us
By mid-summer.
As the world continues
Burning up.
Cities everywhere
Running out of fresh water.
Heading towards
A potential civilization
Ending tipping point.
Ritual denunciation
By the rabid right-wing media
Of the so-called
Climate change hoax.
Politicians vowing
To undo the green energy revolution
And drill baby, drill.
Meanwhile oil companies
Enjoying record profits,
And nothing meaningful
Is done to avert the looming crisis
Facing the human race.
Summer Solstice
sunshine
heat
midsummer
ritual
Snow Day
The beginning of the second Ice Age
Started with a series of unending
Monster winter storms,
Driven by the polar vortex.
Featuring bomb cyclone blizzards,
That hit the Northern Hemisphere
During the winter of 2024.
And continued until late spring,
When a series of monster hurricanes
Came along to cause more chaos.
The winter storms came back in the fall,
Ending, then reversing global warming,
Replaced by the coming
Of the second ice age.
During the first storm,
Sam Adams sat in his power-less
Historic Capitol Hill row house,
Boiling tea in a tea kettle on the gas stove.
With his favorite Kitten
He dubbed the Buddha Cat
Because the cat spends his days
Engaged in deep meditation.
Which had a calming
Impact on Sam
Who was going
Through cell phone withdrawal
Due to the long power outage.
Make the title of your static item Snow Day
Include a kitten and a tea kettle in your story or poem (and bold them)
Use Pets as one of your genres.
Summertime Blues
The weather is hot and humid
In Korea like a sauna
In the West Coast, burning up
In endless fires
Death Valley temperatures
Save the Whales from Evil Wind Farms
33
In the latest deranged attempt
To prevent widespread use
Of renewal energy technology,
A new battle cry has emerged.
Cynical corporate opponents
of offshore wind farms
Are up in arms over the wind farms
Apparently killing whales.
They scream,
“Save the whales
Save our beaches
From the evil wind farms”,
They descend upon
A coastal village in New Jersey
The atmosphere of a tiny village is gone
A large building emerge
Environmentally friendly fences
Surround the site.
That hosts the anti-wind farm
Movement headquarters
Secretly funded by
The Evil fossile fuel dinosaurs.
The town and nation
Dividing into those
Who love it
Or hate it.
As evil corporate CEOs
Count their obscene profits
As they shed crocodile tears,
Over the fate of the poor whales.
Use in your poem or story the following: Bold it for tomorrow’s judge!
The atmosphere of a tiny village is gone
Large buildings appear
Environmentally friendly fences
Love it or hate it.
| No More Fireworks
25 lines In the summer There were signs “No more fireworks” Due to climate change
The entire west All over the world
The end times
Hell on earth The end of times
Fast and furious
Use “No More Fireworks” as the title of your story or poem (and static item). Choose HOLIDAY as one of your genres. |
No Rain
{n 2025, the world ended
With the collapse
Of the worldwide climate system.
Monster storms of the century
devastated half the world
But the other half of the world
Had no rain or snow.
For almost a whole year
The once green grass was dying
Crops failed everywhere.
And baked in the unrelenting
Blast wave furnace-like heat
Heatwave after heatwave.
Military coups took place
Fascism re-emerged
The public demanded action.
The politicians played
The blame game.
With the collapse of trade
And travel restrictions
People stayed home.
Making do the best they could
Home-grown gardens
Proliferated.
Feudal townships grew
As people walled themselves off
To save their communities
The rich build underground cities
While the poor starved
And civilization crumbled
Wildlife proliferated.
As did neo-savage
cannibal gangs
By the year 2030.
It was all over
And the rains
Never came out west.
Ice Age 2.0 Cometh
In the year 2025
Climate change
Ran amuck.
Starting with monster storms
Out west
That lasted from November until June
,
With a brief intense fire season
So much soot and smoke
In the air.
Dubbed the year
without a summer
Crops failed everywhere
massive riots erupted
total chaos
Then another
monster storm season
From November to June.
Non=stop rain and snow
Breaking all records.
As the entire West coast
Went from mega drought
To mega flooding.
And mega floods
Thousand-year Tornados
Hurricanes from hell
Ravaged the rest of the land.
Hell on Earth
Sam Adams
Woke up one day
Looking out at his flooded home.
Filled with black, foul-smelling, murky,
Miasma, muddy sewage water
Thanking God
That he had survived
The monster storm
Of the century.
That has swept across the land.
The wind from the terrible tornados
Tearing through the devastated land.
Fleeing the fury of the fire out west.
Unleashing the fury of nature,
Truly Hell on earth had arrived.
Climate change arriving on steroids.
Thinking about the end-of-the-world.
Water
land
fire
wind
Use the elements mentioned above in your poem or story.
Do you believe in Climate change ?
Do you believe in climate change?
It is as real as everything else
Is the weather getting hotter?
Soon it will be hell on earth.
Is the world burning up?
Yes the world is burning, has a a fever
What is the worst weather you ever experienced?
Korean winter 1979 – -60 Fahrenheit that winter
What is the hottest weather you ever experienced?
Bangkok Thailand in the summer often hit over 100 degrees
Ever lived through a hurricane?
Only few blew through DC when I was there
And wildfires?
Saw a few in Oregon – end of the world feeling
Who is to blame for climate change?
We all are to blame especially the fossil fuel moguls.
Can humanity long survive climate change?
Nope I feel the end times are coming.
New Prompt: We are playing with the Pregunta today. Questions and answers.
Topic: the Weather.
Make sure your poem is not longer than 40 lines.
Information can be found here: “Pregunta”
The Pregunta
There is not much to be found on the Internet about this form. It is used in English, but has a Spanish name, as Pregunta means question.
Ferrán Sanchez Talavera’s pregenital___999 is a famous example of a poetic debate in this form. I also saw this form on Jan Haag’s page; questions followed by a witty but often wise answer.
Simply stated:
The Pregunta is written in couplets, containing a question and an answer. You can make it as long as you like, as a debate never stops after one question and answer.
Korean Heat Dome Blues
It is hot summertime in Korea.
Hiding out, avoiding the damn heat.
The weather is just so hot, mama mia!
Dreaming of eating ice cream, such a treat.
At night, nothing beats having a cold drink.
Trying to avoid the tropical night.
The heat dome settles like a hot heat sink
Making people so crazy, want to fight.
Note: Korea gets hot in July/August, it is like living in a sauna. Many people suffer without air conditioning as the electric bills are pretty high. This year is particularly bad as a heat dome has settled down. The monsoons came and went, lots of damage down south but not where I live. August is traditionally the worst, the heat usually begins to abate end of August. Still not as bad as the US – no massive wildfires so far.
Dome Cities to Save the Human Race
39 lines
In the year 2030
After five years
Of ever worsening weather
Record heat waves after heat waves
Massive fires everywhere
Record hurricanes and typhoons
Mega flooding and mega droughts too
Tornados including fire tornado
Large parts of the world
Were experiencing death valley temperatures
The UN convened a global conference
With the vast majority of countries
Agreeing to set up emergency shelter
By creating domed cities
Covering the core downtown areas
Exurban areas would be abandoned
Most of Florida would be abandoned
Most of the Desert Southwest as well.
The shelters would be built
Using nano construction technology
Developed in a Lab with AI assistance
Creating the shelter domes with AI assistance
The tone of the meetings was positive
There was a new sense of harmony
There was a feeling that building these shelters
Along with transitioning to a green energy environment
Was the last chance to save the human race
The social conservatives in the U.S.
And elsewhere realized
That they had no choice
But to join in the new consensus
Even the big energy companies vowed
To join in the efforts to save humanity
For a profit of course
Either We Deal with Climate Change or We All Die
Climate change is real.
And getting out of control.
Either humanity deals with it.
Changing to green energy solutions.
It is technologically possible.
We all know what we must do.
It could be a civilization ending event.
Or in ten years we will have to retreat underground.
WRITE AN EITHER / OR POEM.
Torrential Rain Fall Everywhere
In the last few years
Due to climate change on steroids.
There has been an increase
In torrential downpours all over the world.
After the Governor Florida
cut climate change funds,
More rain fell in one day than in a year.
Flooding the entire city of Miami.
WRITE A TORRENTIAL POEM.
Climate Change
The climate is changing now.
It is a matter of how.
Some are still in denial.
Saying it’s a witch-trial
Form: TANAGA
It is a poem of four lines (quatrain)
It is usually a rhyming poem
Each line contains seven syllables (7-7-7-7)
AABB is the traditional rhyme scheme
But variations in rhyme scheme are allowed
Just have fun!
Visions of the Future
As I fell asleep
Watching the news
Unfold
Thought it could not worst
Surely sanity will prevail
I began to see visions
Of the future
One scene after another
Starting in January
Operation Shock and Awe
Overnight fascism descended
On the US
Martial law declare
The military takes
over the Blue States
Mass deportation begins
25 percent tariffs imposed
The world responds by banning US imports
And banning US citizens from traveling there
US troops come home
A draft is imposed
Troops stationed on the border
Which is sealed up
Detention camps fill up
With illegal citizens
Protestors and dissidents
The New Government Efficiency report
Calls for eliminating 40 percent
of the Federal workforce
whole departments are abolished
as protests spread
unemployment reaches
unemployment levels
Public health collapses
Government services collapse
Libraries closed down
Schools replaced
By private church schools
the media is tamed
corporations take over
remaining media workers
and government workers
stay silent
not wanting to join
the ranks of the growing unemployed
as AI bots take over
job after job
the internet cleansed
of dissenting views
and monitored
millions are driven
to homelessness
unemployment
reaches 50 percent
homeless camps
called Trumpvilles spread
the military breaks them up
thousands are killed
the rest of the homeless
are rounded up
put into camps
forced to work
in agricultural jobs
inflation goes through the roof
the media becomes cheerleaders
saying things will get better
if we stay the course
it gets worse
people who have jobs
feel fortunate
those who do not
joined by millions
as AI takes over
job after job
the President dies
JD Vance takes over
And things continue
Getting worse
Worldwide it is bad
Democratic governments
Collapse everywhere
JD Vance declares
The United States
Will become the
North American empire
Moving the capital
To Omaha
Calling for a constitutional convention
But suspending the constitution for now
The democratic party declared
The enemy within
Congress sent home
The SC does not say a word
After the liberal members
Are arrested
Most people do not know
What is going on
The media and news
Showing nothing but good news
People retreat into their own world
VR games have become very popular
Drugs are everywhere
But illegal
Overseas Russian troops take over
Eastern Europe
Russian Empire relaunched
China takes back Taiwan
And Korea
Declaring the Chinese Empire
Middle East overcome by war
Israel was destroyed in a nuclear war
Nuclear war breaks out
Indian and Pakistan
China and Korea
US and Russia
Are now allies
Western Europe
Breaks apart
Ten years later
World civilization has fallen apart
Climate change ends
With the collapse of trade
And travel
Followed by a new ice age
Triggered by nuclear winter
The end of the world
Has arrived
Most people live in fort cities
Ruled by local warlords
Working in agriculture
Or working as scavengers
80 percent of humanity
Perished after massive storms
Nuclear war
Disease and the ending
of civilization
A few college towns
Try to stay alive
The knowledge
of the past
but most people don’t know
don’t care and have forgotten
the recent past nightmares.
The imperial governments
Around the world
Rule nothing but
The immediate capitol regions
The rest of the world
Continuing in feudal townships
Rich people have finally figured out
How to move to Mars and the Moon
Living in vast underground cities
On in underground cities
Beneath the earth
My vision ends with these sights
Ten years after the chaos began.
the year 202438 lines The year 2024 All over the world It started with a break in the rain As Sam Adams He stopped off in Bodega Bay While watching the crashing surf The birds were soon joined by bears, All gathered together The attacks started that day And within weeks. break in the rain Choose TRAVEL as one of your genres. |
© Solar Energy Mirrored Cinquain
Solar
Clean energy
We can do it right now
Renewable energy for all
Why not?
Wind too
To save the world, we must do it
We know how to do it
Climate change is now
Killing
The Mirrored Cinquain
First I have to bring back into memory how the cinquain goes:
The cinquain is developed by Adelaide Crapsey.
A cinquain contains five lines (the French word cinq can be found in it), and has a total of 22 syllables. The poems are unrhymed, and in a way related to the haiku
This is how you form the cinquain
Line 1: 2 syllables
Line 2: 4 syllables
Line 3: 6 syllables
Line 4: 8 syllables
Line 5: 2 syllables
The Mirrored Cinquain has an additional stanza, in which you mirror the order of the lines.
This is how you form the mirrored cinquain:
The spaced opening in the middle forms the mirror, and in the second stanza you can see that the order of the lines are reversed.
Running out of water
The end of the year
Running out of water
The fire in the sky
What does it matter ?
The bomb cylcone storm
The climate getting hotter
People becoming madder
Nature ready for slaughter
We watch it all unfold
Our leader the chief Plotter
As climate change worsens
Reality to fought her
To me, a new form to play with, but in fact it is an old Irish poetry form.
Guidelines:
It is written in quatrains.
Each stanza has four lines.
The first line has five syllables.
The other three lines have six syllables.
All end words are two syllables.
But – written with the defining features of most Celtic poems, cywddydd (harmony of sound) meaning alliteration, consonance and assonance and dunadh (ending the poem with the same word, phrase or line with which the poem began)
Last Bird of the Autumn
15 lines
Sam Adams was hiking
In the mountains
On a late autumn day
When he encountered
The last bird alive.
A virus had emerged
From the thawing permafrost
Quickly spreading around the world
Killing birds
Until there were only a few
Who survived.
He captured the bird
Took it home
And continued to look
For other birds to save.
Please use the following as the Title of your poem or story:
“Last Bird of Autumn”
The genre is up to you.
End-of-the-World Feelings
17 lines
Sam Adams
Woke up one day
Looking out at his flooded home.
Filled with black, foul-smelling, murky,
Miasma, muddy sewage water
Thanking God
That he had survived
The monster storm
Of the century.
That has swept across the land.
The wind from the terrible tornados
Tearing through the devastated land.
Fleeing the fury of the fire out west.
Unleashing the fury of nature,
Truly Hell on earth had arrived.
Climate change arriving on steroids.
Thinking about the end-of-the-world.
new prompt:
water
land
fire
wind
Use the elements mentioned above in your poem or story.
Last BBQ
The day the world ended
Was a cool evening
in the late summer time,
They heard the news
About the monarch butterflies
Disappearing because of climate change
While enjoying their BBQ
In the backyard fire pit
Good friends drinking beer
And wine eating BBQ
Chilling out, talking about the world
And their stories
Snoring dogs woke up
When the aliens arrived
Ending the world
As they knew it.
Last Ground Hog Day
36 lines
The last ground day
February 2, 2025
Started as most such days did,
In the U.S. people flocking
To see whether the groundhog
Would see his shadow or not.
The mystery remains
Why this event
Had so captured
The imagination of the world?
By the end of the day
The ground hog’s prognosis
Of six weeks more winter
Seemed ironical.
As that was the year
Without summer
And the first year
Of the new ice age.
By the end of the day
There were massive volcanic eruptions
Triggered by the Yellowstone volcano.
Setting off other volcanos –
All told over 25 volcanos blew up.
Followed by massive earthquakes
Including the “Big One” in California
The massive explosions led to a year
Without summer
A true civilization-ending event,
Ground Hog Day soon faded away.
Into collective amnesia.
No one had time anymore
To deal with such a mundane
Old fashion mystery.
As they were dealing with
The end-of-the-world.
NEW PROMPT:
Write a story or poem about a Groundhog Day (2/2) gone wrong.
Choose Mystery as one of your genres.
End-of-the-world Survival Blues
I got them
The end-of-the-world
End times coming
Climate change is real
Blues.
Every day
More bad news
As Frank Zappa once wrote
“No one can deny
That trouble coming every day.”
I got them
The end-of-the-world
Blues.
Turning on the news
Nonstop stories 24/7
About killer storms
Monster tornados
Super typhoons
Monsoon floods.
Wars, rumors of war
COVID running out of control
False prophets everywhere
Economies still reeling
Inflation out of control
Derange gunmen
Shooting up schools
Churches, mosques, temples
Shopping malls
Insurrection plots
Political madness
Spreading across the world.
Neo-fascism is on the move.
Oh yeah
I got them
End times coming
Blues.
We all used to think
Climate change
Is a future threat.
Now it seems
To be real
Live and in living color.
No longer just
A disaster movie
I got them
The climate change blues
And now it seems real
Seeing whole towns disappearing
In fires, floods, and storm damages.
And near me
Roads closed
Apartments flooded
Subway shut down.
Apartment garage flooded
People drowned in their cars
Trying to escape.
Thousand-year storms
Coming every day
To a town near you
No one can escape
It seems so real
Is this the end?
Is our very survival
At stake?
Or will we somehow
Manage in the end
To solve our problems?
Will our descendants
Be living
In a post-apocalyptic world,
Looking back at the ruins
Of the old world
In their underground bunkers
Or on the Moon and Mars?
Oh, I got them
The survival blues.
SURVIVAL
Line Count Requirement: Minimum of 12
Required Form: none
End Times
22
Sam Adams
Reflected that the end times
Were coming.
Climate change
Running out of control
The whole world is on fire.
magnetic storm
causing rampant
power failures
Making it hard.
To breathe
in the smoky air.
He just wants to
Jump in the river
To cool off.
But he realized
There was no end
In sight.
As the world ends
Burning up
Turning the world
Into hell on earth.
New Prompt:
Use in your poem or story the following, and bold it for tomorrow’s judge:
magnetic storm
power failure
breathe
jump in the river
Stay Positive15 line version With all the gloom and doom Like Frank Zappa’s famous Senator Manchin reached a deal He took the deal |
No more Perfect Summer Days
I wish that we could have
A perfect summer day,
A bit warm but not hot
Not too humid.
Everyone filled with peace,
Love and health.
Plenty of personal freedom,
As we enjoy a picnic lunch
Watching fireworks at night.
Then I realize
That the world
No longer allows us
To have perfect summer days.
Hot as hell weather
Everywhere around the world
Monster summer storms.
Running out of water,
Running out of food,
COVID is still around.
Everyone scared.
Deranged gunmen
everywhere guns blazing.
New leaders emerge
Promising to protect us.
And we lose our freedoms.
One by one
As fascism takes over.
The climate change
And all the other dystopian future
Nightmares become reality,
No more perfect summer days.
Korean Summers Haiku
Korean Summers
Hot sauna humidity
Long tropical nights
Author note:
I have suffered through many Korean summers off since 1979 when I first came in the last peace corps group to complete service in Korea, and more recently since I semi-retired to Korea in late 2016. This is probably my 16th Korean summer. Some things have improved – air conditioning is everywhere and
God is Not Happy with the Human Race
God is not happy
With the human race.
He is sending us a warning
The world is filled with hate
The world is on the brink.
Our way of life under attack
From the forces
Of evil Satanic godless communism.
Who under the guise
Of fighting the climate change hoax
Want to deny us our freedom.
Want to deny us our cars
Make us all take the bus
Make us all vegan.
They will not stop
Until our way of life
Comes to an end.
And the climate
It is not changing
Just a reflection
Of God’s warning.
Repent, the end times
Are coming soon
Are you right with the lord?
Judgment day is at hand
As California burns
So does the nation
Unless we repent
Of our evil ways.
God is warning us all
My friends
Will we heed his words
Or end up dying?
Last Gasp of the Old World
30 lines
The world’s weather
Continued to change
Going from bad to worst
With the impact of climate change.
Every day another monster storm
Another polar vortex
Another northeastern
Along with killer tornados.
Then the summer came
Hot and dry
Fire season started west
Monster hurricanes down south.
Relentless fires burning
The land
Everywhere seemed to be
Hell on earth.
Noting the odd weather
Sam Adams the famous writer
Concluded on his blog
Welcome to the end times
My friends
It is only going to get worst.
Revelations foretold us
All of this
Jesus is coming soon
To judge the living
And the dead.
Be afraid
Of the coming wraith
Of the Lord.
The Last Umbrella
18 lines
Sam Adams was a scientist
Working on global warming
And acid rain fall
He knew what many did not
That the end was indeed coming
Soon he feared that walking
Outside in the rain
Would be a death sentence
He knew that this might be
The end of the umbrella industry
He called his broker
Shorted shares
In universal umbrellas
And other umbrella companies
Before releasing his report
That led to the collapse
Of the umbrella market
Climate Change on the Move
Climate change
On the move
Everywhere
The world’s weather
In turmoil
Massive winter storms
Covering the world
Rare winter tornados
Causing havoc everywhere
There is good news
The fires out west
Finally dying down
As the winter storms
Bear down on the west
Korean December Weather – Brought to You By Global Warming, Inc
A relatively mild December day
More like November than December
Due to Climate warming?
Korea used to have a predictable weather pattern
The winter would start late November, eartly December
By the end of the year,
It would be snowing every other day
Accumulating in the mountains
But not too much in the cities.
A clear pattern three days cold
Four days warm
Cold but not too cold yet.
That would happen
In January through March,
When cold air would flow down
From Siberian and Manchuria
Covering the land,
With bone-chilling cold
That would not let up
Until mid-March
When the cold
Would begin to end.
Except in the mountains
When it would linger until May,
And Korea is a land of mountains
70 percent mountains.
Most under 5,000 American feet
A few a bit higher
Many more hills than mountains
Whatever that means.
Climate Warming Inc Press release
Due to our efforts
The traditional severely cold Korean has ended
Winter now will be just January and February
Summer will start in May,
End in September.
October through December
Will be mild.
Thanks to our efforts
You should be glad
We are giving you
A longer fall
And shorter winter.
The summers unfortunately
It will be a bit hotter
Nothing we can do about that
Hope you can afford
More Air conditioning.
Thanks
The Climate Warming Corp Inc
The World Can End in Fire and Ice
Some scientists are warning us
Climate change could result
In both global warming,
And ironically
that could be followed
By a renewed ice age.
The theory is that global weather patterns
The Gulf Stream and Jet streams
Have been keeping parts of the world
warmer that before.
and that the melting of the ice caps
and the growing climate disruptions
could result in a revival
of another planetary ice age.
and that based
on long-term climate trends
the earth is overdue
for another ice age .
thus the world could end
in both fire and ice.
Climate Change Etheree
Hot
weather
everywhere
like Death Valley
heat baking the land
hotter than hell at times
never ending hot weather
people feeling constant heat
no end in sight climate changing
end of the world feeling descending
An Etheree poem has a syllable count of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. It adheres to a clean, graduated edge because it is also considered form poetry, created by Etheree Taylor Armstrong. I like the Etheree centered because it looks like a Christmas tree.
Climate Change is Hitting Us Now Onda Mel Poem
Climate Change is hitting us now.
Weather is hot.
What have we wrought?
November weather is hot, wow.
End-of-the-world feelings abound,
Fires burning.
So concerning.
Death Valley temperatures around.
The Onda Mel is an eight-line form of poetry contrived by Renelda Gibson with a structure of 8, 4, 4, 8, 8, 4, 4, 8 syllables per line and a rhyme scheme of abbacddc, as described and demonstrated in the following link:
https://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/topic/2008-form-unique-to-the-study-and-writing…
Background on Likely Environmental Policy Under Trump Provided by Co-Pilot
Left-Wing Perspective:
Critics from the left argue that Trump’s climate policies are detrimental to environmental progress. They highlight his withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and the rollback of over 100 environmental regulations during his first term. These actions are seen as setbacks in the fight against climate change, with concerns that they prioritize fossil fuel interests over renewable energy and environmental protection2. The left also points out that Trump’s stance on climate change, often labeling it a “hoax,” undermines scientific consensus and global efforts to address the issue.
Right-Wing Perspective:
Supporters from the right view Trump’s climate agenda as a necessary shift towards economic growth and energy independence. They argue that deregulation and increased fossil fuel production are crucial for job creation and economic stability. Trump’s emphasis on “energy dominance” and his skepticism towards climate change policies are seen as efforts to reduce government overreach and support traditional energy industries4. Some right-wing governments, while supporting climate action, still align with Trump’s approach to balancing economic and environmental priorities.
What Percentage of Energy in the U,S. Comes from Renewable Energy Currently?
As of 2023, renewable energy sources (including wind, hydroelectric, solar, biomass, and geothermal energy) accounted for 21% of total U.S. utility-scale electricity generation. This marks a significant increase in the share of renewable energy in the country’s energy mix over recent years1.
How Likely is it that Trump Might Withdraw from Climate Negotiations?
There is a significant concern that Trump might withdraw from climate negotiations, particularly the Paris Agreement, if he were to secure another term. During his first term, Trump did withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, and there are indications he might do so again2. This potential move is seen as a setback for global climate efforts, as the U.S. plays a crucial role in international climate policy.
However, some experts believe that the renewable energy sector’s growth and market trends might mitigate the impact of such a withdrawal. The uncertainty around this issue remains high, and it will depend on various political and economic factors.
Final point – some have argued that rewewable energy subsidies including for home solar and EV vehicles might be ended
There are indeed discussions and concerns about the potential end of renewable energy subsidies, including those for home solar and electric vehicles (EVs). These subsidies have been crucial in promoting the adoption of clean energy technologies and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Current State of Subsidies:
Home Solar: Many states, including Oregon, offer incentives for solar installations. For example, the Oregon Solar + Storage Rebate Program provides rebates for solar electric systems and paired solar and storage systems for residential customers2.
Electric Vehicles: Federal tax credits are available for EV purchases, offering up to $7,500. Additional state and local incentives may also be available.
Potential Changes:
Political Climate: The future of these subsidies largely depends on the political climate and the priorities of the administration in power. Some argue that ending these subsidies could slow down the transition to renewable energy and hinder efforts to combat climate change.
Economic Factors: On the other hand, some believe that the market for renewable energy and EVs has matured enough to sustain itself without subsidies, and that ending them could reduce government spending.
For more detailed information, you can check out the Department of Energy’s website and the White House’s clean energy initiatives.
Meta and Co-Pilot additional background reading
Meta AI’s explanation as to why so many Republicans are climate deniers
Comment: This is a good overview of why so many Republicans are against doing anything to deal with climate change. the biggest reason is the first reason – they are beholden to their donor class, and much of their support comes from big Oil, the gun lobby, and Big Pharma which explains so much of their opposition to doing anything meaningful re climate change, gun control, and reforming medical care towards setting up guaranteed universal coverage which is something every other major industrialized country has managed to do.
what is still a mystery to me is why republicans who are supposed to be the party of big business fail to see the huge potential in building out a green energy economy and are willing to let China and others take over the world market in green energy revolution. Especially since we invented much of the underlying technologies decades ago. Surely re-building a green energy economy would make us energy independent, allow us to dominate the world’s economy, and save the planet from destruction all why making huge profits – the energy companies could be part of the solution instead of the obstacles that they are now. And why do we want to preserve dirty, dangerous jobs for coal miners and oil rig operators when so many of the jobs there are being lost to automation and the shift to renewable energy is moving ahead everywhere, even in the States. The US should be taking the lead.
If we had followed their policies back in the 1920s the US would have been left behind when the automobile replaced the horse and buggy business leaving the field to the Germans, the Italians later the Japanese to control the automobile sector.
The same argument could be made regarding developing high speed trains including maglev and hyperloop technology, why are we letting the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, French and Germans take over that market space? Everyone knows that train travel saves the environment as it saves on gasoline costs and saves lives as it is far safer than driving. Not to mention, people can be much more productive taking a train and working remotely rather than stuck in traffic.
End Comments
The Republican Party’s opposition to addressing climate change, renewable energy, and their denial of climate change is a complex issue with multiple factors at play.
Here are some reasons:
Historical ties to fossil fuel industry: The Republican Party has traditionally received significant funding and support from the fossil fuel industry, which has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
Ideological opposition to government regulation: Republicans often prioritize limited government intervention and free market principles, which leads them to resist policies that would regulate carbon emissions or promote renewable energy.
Economic concerns: Some Republicans worry that transitioning to renewable energy would lead to job losses in industries related to fossil fuels.
Skepticism of climate science: A subset of Republicans has questioned the scientific consensus on climate change, often citing concerns about the reliability of climate models or the role of natural climate variability. Not to mention that many republicans are science skeptic these days.
Political polarization: Climate change has become a highly politicized issue, with Republicans often viewing it as a Democratic priority and therefore opposing it.
Recent events: Despite the record-breaking heat and fires, some Republicans may downplay the significance of these events or attribute them to natural variability rather than climate change.
It’s important to note that not all Republicans deny climate change or oppose renewable energy, and there are growing voices within the party advocating for climate action.
De Santis’s Don’t Say Climate Change
Certainly! Let’s dive into Governor Ron DeSantis’s recent actions related to climate change in Florida.
Budget Plan for Climate Change Impacts:
In January 2021, Governor DeSantis proposed a budget plan to address climate change impacts in Florida. His plan included allocating $25 million for the creation of the Resilient Florida grant program. This program aims to tackle challenges posed by flooding, intensified storm events, and sea-level rise across the state1.
The Resilient Florida program is designed to issue bonds, providing a total of $1 billion over four years to state and local agencies. The initial $25 million in the 2021-2022 budget would help finance these bonds, with the amount increasing annually until it reaches $100 million in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
DeSantis’s focus on resilience and adaptation reflects the urgent need to address climate-related threats in Florida, a state particularly vulnerable to rising seas and extreme weather events.
“Don’t Say Climate Change” Legislation:
In May 2024, Governor DeSantis signed a bill that removes references to “climate change” from many state laws. This legislation effectively deprioritizes climate change in policy decisions and energy planning.
Under this new law, Florida’s energy policy no longer emphasizes addressing planet-warming pollution. Instead, the priorities shift toward reducing reliance on foreign energy sources and strengthening energy infrastructure against both natural and man-made threats.
Notably, the law also bans offshore wind development within a mile of Florida’s coastlines, signaling a departure from intentional efforts to transition toward cleaner energy sources like wind and solar2.
Implications:
By erasing the term “climate change” from state laws, Florida risks neglecting critical environmental challenges. The state has experienced record heat and costly hurricanes in recent years, making climate adaptation crucial.
The nullification of renewable energy goals—previously aimed at achieving 100% clean energy by 2050—could hinder progress toward mitigating climate impacts.
Governor DeSantis has framed his climate policy around the Resilient Florida Program, which focuses on preparing communities for rising seas and extreme weather events. However, critics argue that the recent legislation undermines broader efforts to combat climate change2.
In summary, while Governor DeSantis has allocated funds for resilience programs, his recent legislation removing the term “climate change” from state laws has raised concerns about Florida’s commitment to addressing this pressing global issue3. If you have any more questions or need further information, feel free to ask! 😊🌎🌿
Learn more:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Budget Plan Addresses Climate Change Impacts1
DeSantis Budget Includes Plan To Address Climate Impacts4
Florida Gov. DeSantis signs bill that deletes climate change from state law2
Image: A resilient Florida coastline facing climate change impacts. 🏖️🌊 !Resilient Florida 1
Other anti-Climate Change Legislation
Certainly! Removing climate change references from legislation and public discourse can have several environmental consequences. Let’s explore those:
Undermining Awareness and Urgency:
When climate change is downplayed or omitted from official documents, it reduces public awareness and urgency. People may not fully grasp the severity of environmental challenges, leading to complacency.
Without clear references, individuals, businesses, and policymakers might underestimate the need for immediate action to mitigate climate impacts.
Policy Implications:
Legislation that avoids mentioning climate change may fail to address critical issues. For instance:
Carbon Emissions Reduction: Policies imbed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, (such as transitioning to renewable energy sources) may lose priority.
Conservation Efforts: References to climate change often tie into conservation efforts. Protecting ecosystems, forests, and wetlands helps sequester carbon. Removing these references could weaken conservation initiatives1.
Impact on Adaptation Strategies:
Climate change adaptation involves preparing for its effects (e.g., sea-level rise, extreme weather events). Without acknowledging climate change, planning for adaptation becomes less effective.
Coastal communities, for instance, need to consider rising sea levels and storm surges. Ignoring these factors could lead to inadequate infrastructure and increased vulnerability.
Loss of Funding and Research Focus:
Funding for climate-related research, monitoring, and mitigation often hinges on acknowledging climate change. If references are removed, research budgets may shrink.
Scientists rely on clear language to secure grants and conduct studies. Reduced funding could hinder our understanding of climate impacts.
Forestry and Carbon Sinks:
Clearcutting forests—
removing large areas of trees—releases substantial carbon into the atmosphere. Forests function as carbon sinks, absorbing CO₂.
Without climate change references, policies may not prioritize forest conservation. This could exacerbate global warming by reducing the Earth’s capacity to absorb carbon1.
Displacement and Vulnerability:
Extreme environmental events (floods, droughts, storms) are linked to climate change. Displacing millions of people annually.
Ignoring climate change in policy decisions perpetuates vulnerability. Communities won’t adequately prepare for these events2.
Economic Impact:
Climate change affects economic sectors (e.g., agriculture, tourism, energy). Omitting references may hinder planning and adaptation.
For example, coastal tourism relies on stable shorelines. Without climate-aware policies, erosion and sea-level rise could harm tourism revenue3.
In summary, removing climate change references has far-reaching consequences. It affects policy, funding, adaptation, and our ability to address urgent environmental challenges. Let’s keep the conversation going! What else would you like to explore? 🌍🌿
Learn more:
NRDC: Stop Clearcutting Our Carbon Sinks1
Review of Global Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation5
National Geographic: Influence of Climate Change on Extreme Environmental Events2
Strategies for Mitigation of Climate Change3
Image: A lush forest, a vital carbon sink. 🌲🌎 !Forest 1
Certainly! While there have been significant efforts to address climate change in the United States, there have also been instances of legislation or lobbying that hindered progress. Let’s explore a few notable examples:
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022:
What it Gets Right: The IRA promises the largest investment in climate action in U.S. history—approximately $370 billion over the next decade. It focuses on scaling up renewable energy production, promoting electric vehicles, and supporting climate-smart agricultural practices.
What it Misses:
Unfortunately, the IRA primarily emphasizes emission-cutting solutions and neglects resilience. While it aims to make buildings more energy-efficient, it misses an opportunity to ensure those buildings can withstand climate-fueled extremes. The lack of climate-resilient building codes remains a concern1.
Climate Emergency Act of 2021 (S.938):
This bill directed the President to declare a national emergency relating to climate change. It called for federal investments in projects to mitigate the emergency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At least 40% of these investments were earmarked for historically disadvantaged communities2.
Landmark Climate Legislation:
Recently, the U.S. House passed a significant climate bill that can help reduce the nation’s carbon emissions by roughly 40% by 2030. This bill allocates about $370 billion to clean energy and climate investments over the next decade. It represents a substantial commitment to addressing the climate crisis head-on3.
Anti-Climate Lobbying:
A study from 2019 highlighted the social cost of political lobbying that blocked proposed climate regulations a decade ago. Such anti-climate lobbying efforts were estimated to have cost society $60 billion. This underscores the impact of lobbying on climate policy and the need for transparent and science-based decision-making4.
In summary, while there have been positive steps toward climate action, it’s essential to remain vigilant and address any legislative or lobbying efforts that hinder progress.
Council on Foreign Relations: What the Historic U.S. Climate Bill Gets Right and Gets Wrong1
Library of Congress: S.938 – Climate Emergency Act of 20212
The Nature Conservancy: U.S. House Passes Landmark Climate Legislation3
Carbon Brief: Lobbying against key US climate regulation ‘cost society $60bn’, study finds4
Image: A wind farm generating renewable energy. 🌬️⚡ !Wind Farm 1
Feel free to explore more topics or ask any follow-up questions! 😊
Recent Wildfires
Certainly! As of the most recent data available, wildfires are actively burning in both the United States and Canada. Let’s break it down:
United States:
Scores of wildfires have been scorching swaths of land across several states, including California, Oregon, Idaho, and others. These fires have led to evacuations, road closures, and damage to structures1.
The total number of active wildfires in the U.S. fluctuates daily due to new ignitions and containment efforts. For real-time updates, you can refer to the Fire, Weather & Avalanche Wildfire Map, which provides an interactive view of current wildfires and their perimeters2.
It’s important to note that the U.S. experiences annual variations in wildfire activity. While the current acreage burned is significant, it’s essential to compare it to historical trends.
Canada:
Canada has faced an unprecedented fire season in 2023. Large and dangerous fires have broken out across provinces such as British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. These fires have displaced thousands, destroyed property, and blanketed large areas of North America with smoke.
As of August 29, 2024, there are 1,069 active fires in Canada, with more than half of them considered out of control. Notably, the area burned by these fires in 2023 has shattered records.
In previous decades, active fire seasons saw more individual fires, but 2023 stands out for the total area burned. The previous record was set in 1995, with 7.1 million hectares burned. However, in 2023, a staggering 15.2 million hectares have already been consumed by wildfires3.
Cartographer Chris Brockley’s map illustrates this: It shows forest fire activity across Canada since 1921, with 2023 depicted in white. The scale of burning this year surpasses anything seen in the past century3.
Comparison to Previous Years:
In the U.S., the amount of land burned varies annually, but the overall trend has been upward since reliable data collection began in the 1980s. While approximately 1.8 million acres have burned so far this year, it’s still below the 10-year average of 2.8 million acres4.
In Canada, the 2023 wildfire season has broken records for the total area burned. Although the number of fires is smaller compared to some previous years, their size and extent have been unprecedented5.
In summary, both the U.S. and Canada are grappling with significant wildfire activity. While the U.S. experiences fluctuations from year to year, Canada’s 2023 fire season stands out as historically severe. Let’s hope for effective containment efforts and continued awareness of the importance of wildfire prevention and management. If you’d like more details or have further questions, feel free to ask! 🔥🌲
Sent by Copilot:
The recent hurricane and tornado seasons in the U.S. have been quite active.
Hurricane Season:
The National Hurricane Center has been tracking a system in the central Atlantic that shows signs it could develop momentum1.
Hurricane Beryl, which occurred in early July 2024, produced more tornadoes in the U.S. than any other tropical system has in almost 19 years2.
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season began with an “explosive start” when Beryl made landfall on Carriacouan Island on July 1 as a Category 4 hurricane before it weakened to a Category 1 and slammed the Texas coast the following week1.
Tornado Season:
As of July 16, 2024, there had been 1,412 tornado reports in the United States, well ahead of the 2010-2024 historical average of 9973.
The distribution of tornadoes has also shifted eastward3.
The biggest year on record for tornadoes was 2011. By July 10 that year, the U.S. had racked up 1,934 tornado reports and would ultimately reach 2,250 for the year3.
Climate Change Impact: The effects of climate change on hurricanes and tornadoes are complex. Research shows rising temperatures are causing hurricanes to become more intense4. However, the link between tornadoes and climate change is currently not fully understood5. Challenges remain that prevent clearer attribution, including limited data collection methods, high year-to-year variability, and difficulty modeling key physical elements that help tornadoes form5. Despite these challenges, studies have found a few trends in the United States by using portions of the record that are more reliable, like data for very strong tornadoes5. Multiple studies find that the conditions that produce the most severe thunderstorms from which tornadoes may form are more likely as the world warms5.
In conclusion, while the recent hurricane and tornado seasons have been active, attributing these changes directly to climate change is complex due to the multifaceted nature of these weather phenomena and the challenges in data collection and modeling. However, the consensus is that climate change is likely making extreme weather events more common65. Further research is needed to fully understand these relationships.
In the news
Hurricane forecasters tracking what could become Tropical Storm Debby
Tracking destructive and deadly tornadoes in the US, in maps and charts
Behind the Forecast: How Hurricane Beryl broke U.S. tornado records
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Tracking destructive and deadly tornadoes in the US, in maps and charts
More than 1,000 tornadoes sprout up across the US in the average year, causing billions of dollars in damage and killing …
Hurricane forecasters tracking what could become Tropical Storm Debby
After a three-week lull in activity, the tropical Atlantic Ocean is showing signs of coming alive, forecasters from the …
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Hurricane season 2024: How long it lasts and what to expect
Expect an above-average hurricane season, forecasters say … However, by the 1950s, the naming convention changed and in the U.S., hurricanes were given female names based on the international …
Hurricane season ramps back up as Saharan dust effects subside. Here’s what to know
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Disturbance spotted over the Atlantic after long hiatus, hurricane forecasters say
Hurricane forecasters spotted a tropical disturbance over the Atlantic Ocean Friday afternoon for the first time in weeks, …
Behind the Forecast: How Hurricane Beryl broke U.S. tornado records
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Hurricane Beryl broke records by being the earliest category four and five hurricanes in the Atlantic …
‘Twisters’ put storm chasing on the map—but here’s what it’s really like
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Hurricane Beryl US insured loss $2.5bn – $4.5bn, $3.7bn best estimate: Moody’s RMS
The US private market insurance industry loss from recent hurricane Beryl’s impacts is estimated to fall in a range of $2.5 …
National Hurricane Center tracking disturbance. Will it become season’s next tropical cyclone?
More tropical waves strengthen into tropical depressions, storms, and hurricanes in August as dust and wind shear diminish.
USA Today20d
Millions without power as Beryl, tornadoes threaten central US; 8 dead: Live updates
For the latest news on Beryl … Possible tornadoes were forecast for the central U.S. Tuesday evening after scorching temperatures and Hurricane Beryl’s winds cut a path through the Southeast …
Inside a Twister With the World’s Most Famous Storm Chaser
Every storm chaser has been looking forward to seeing the movie “Twisters,” a loose follow-up to the box-office smash …
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Tracking destructive and deadly tornadoes in the US, in maps and charts
More than 1,000 tornadoes sprout up across the United States … season got off to an accelerated start, with the cumulative number of storms thus far eclipsing storm counts in recent years …
5don MSN
Iowa has seen more tornadoes than most states in 2024. Will fall bring more destruction?
Iowa ranks just behind Texas and Nebraska for the number of tornadoes in 2024. See what to expect the rest of the year.
Post-storm investigations confirm two additional tornadoes in the Adirondacks
The 7 tornadoes that touched down in Adirondack Park bring the total to at least 18 in July in New York state.
Hundred thousand still without power in Texas a week after Hurricane Beryl
The aftermath of a hurricane can oftentimes be the deadliest because of failing infrastructure and lack of support or …
Illinois has already experienced over 100 tornadoes this year, double the annual average
On Monday, the National Weather Service in Chicago issued 16 tornado warnings — the most they’ve sent out on a single day …
The Biggest Hurricanes of the 1980s in the United States
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7 East Coast Places Where You Would Theoretically Be Safe From Hurricanes
Despite being the hurricane season, there are places on the East Coast that are likely to remain safe from hurricane impacts …
National Hurricane Center tracking ‘area of disturbed weather’ in central Atlantic
The National Hurricane Center in Miami is tracking an “area of disturbed weather” in the central Atlantic, but don’t expect it to …
Could this year’s hyperactive tornado season turn out to be the worst on record?
A large tornado tracks past a highway near Lincoln, Nebraska, on April 26, 2024. (Aaron Jay jack) Severe weather has been a frequent occurrence across the United States this year, with an unusually …
2024 is 6th busiest tornado season for Oklahoma in nearly 75 years
The National Weather Service reported on Thursday that for 2024, Oklahoma had one of its largest tornado outbreaks in nearly …
National Hurricane Center on track for changes to cone of concern. Here’s what to expect
The cone only indicates where the center of the storm is most likely to be. The center moves out of the cone about a third of …
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The Shreveport National Weather Service reported record-breaking severe weather events after last Monday’s tropical storm …
With record-breaking July, where does 2024 rank as a tornado year in New York?
This hasn’t been the year with the most tornadoes on record in New York yet, but there’s nearly half a year to go.
Illinois Has Already Had 100 Tornadoes, Double Annual Average
Chicago issued 16 tornado warnings, the most sent on a single day since 2004. In an average year, the state only experiences 50 tornadoes annually. But as the air becomes more humid, tornadoes will …
CO-PIlot on Donald Trump’s Comments on Climate Change
Comment: Co-pilots often surprise me with their creative wild responses. I think the debate over whether we are dealing with a real AI is over. AI is here now, and it is an alien intelligence. And Co-Pilot has both a personality, and a liberal bias. and is indeed creative. And I don’t think she likes Trump and the Republicans., I like the line as “unpredictable as a squirrel on a seesaw”
Copilot on Trump’s Climate Dance Moves
Ah, the enigmatic dance of Donald Trump and climate change—a topic that’s as unpredictable as a squirrel on a seesaw! Let’s unravel this intriguing tango, shall we? 🕺💨
Donald Trump’s Climate Change Cha-Cha: A Brief Recap:
The Denial Shuffle:
Back in the day (well, not that long ago), Trump was doing the climate cha-cha with gusto. He called climate change “mythical,” “nonexistent,” and even an “expensive hoax.” But wait, there’s more! In 2012, he famously claimed that climate change was cooked up by the Chinese to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. (Yes, you read that right—apparently, the Great Wall wasn’t enough; they needed climate change too.)
Twitter Twirls:
Trump’s Twitter feed was like a climate-themed rollercoaster. Over 120 tweets questioned or poked fun at climate change. He insisted that scientists rebranded global warming as climate change because “the name global warming wasn’t working.” (Note to self: Scientists are not marketing consultants.)
Cold Snap Samba: Trump’s favorite move? Linking cold weather to climate change. But here’s the twist: The World Meteorological Organization says the 20 warmest years on record happened in the past 22 years. So, maybe he missed that memo while tweeting from Mar-a-Lago.
Ambiguous Tango:
Fast-forward to his presidency. Trump’s stance became as slippery as a salsa dancer on an ice rink. He’d acknowledge climate change but frame it in terms of clean air and water (which, by the way, aren’t directly related). And he’d throw in business costs for good measure. Because nothing says “climate action” like a spreadsheet, right?
Quotes & Quips: Let’s sprinkle some Trump quotes for flavor:
“I think there is some connectivity [between human activity and climate change]. There is some, something. It depends on how much. It also depends on how much it’s going to cost our companies.” (New York Times interview, November 2016)
“I don’t think there’s a hoax. I do think there’s probably a difference. But I don’t know that it’s man-made… I don’t wanna give trillions and trillions of dollars.”
(CBS interview, October 2018)
And then he’d wink and say, “Climate change is very important to me.” (Cue the dramatic music.)
In Conclusion (or Should We Say, Grand Finale?):
Trump’s climate dance card is a mix of moonwalks, twirls, and the occasional mooning of scientific consensus.
Whether he’s a climate skeptic, a climate pragmatist, or just a climate-confused soul, one thing’s for sure: His moves keep us guessing.
And there you have it—the Trumpian climate conundrum, wrapped in a sequined bow. If you want more twists and turns, just ask—i’ve got enough material to choreograph a whole Broadway show! 🌎🎭✨
BBC: What does Trump actually believe on climate change?1
Image: Trump doing the climate change cha-cha. 🌍🕺 !Trump Cha-Cha 1
1bbc.com2msn.com3msn.com4msn.com5bbc.co.uk
A second Trump term would actively make climate change worse
The videos first started appearing a dozen years ago. Pickup truck drivers, mostly young men, would modify their diesel engines and then record themselves deliberately spreading air pollution.
It was called “rolling coal,” and the idea was to spew dark clouds of exhaust at bicyclists, Prius and Tesla drivers and other cars as a protest of environmentalism.
The trend appears to have peaked in 2014, thanks to new state laws and crackdowns on people selling vehicle modification kits and, presumably, finding better things to do with their time. But the impulse behind it lives on, even as the risks of climate change become ever more serious.
The most recent example? Project 2025, a set of conservative proposals from the Heritage Foundation that outlines step-by-step plans to remake the federal government in a second Donald Trump administration, including dismantling nearly everything the federal government is doing to fight climate change, making it dramatically harder to conduct basic scientific research on it and actively promoting more oil and gas use.
Trump has tried to distance himself from the proposals, despite the fact that some of his top former advisers spearheaded it. But it’s in line with his thinking. As The Washington Post reported, he told a gathering of top oil executives this year that he would reverse dozens of environmental regulations and stop new ones if they raised $1 billion to help him return to the White House.
‘Terrible policy and politics’: Rattner breaks down Project 2025
His campaign, meantime, targeted environmental regulations such as electric vehicle mandates in its Agenda 47, a scattershot series of videos outlining its plans for a second term. And at rallies, Trump frequently criticizes electric cars, claiming in one bizarre aside that buying one made his friend gain weight because he would eat at restaurants while it charged. Trump has also gone off on weird tangents about the risks of electric batteries on boats.
In his first “rolling coal” term, Trump rolled back or loosened nearly 100 rules and regulations on pollution, many of which set the U.S. further behind in the effort to stop the worst effects of climate change, according to a tally by The New York Times. But that record would be dwarfed by the damage that the Project 2025 proposals could do if he followed through on them, even as Monday was the hottest day ever measured by humans, according to a European Union science agency.
The 922-page document drips with disdain for what it calls “climate alarmism” that it argues is being used as propaganda for “ineffective, liberty-crushing regulations.” But its most damaging proposal looks like it would launch what amounts to a propaganda effort against climate science.
The first step is something called Schedule F, which would reclassify thousands of government workers, making it easier for the president to hire and fire them. Even if Trump were to fire only some of those workers, the shift toward politicization of lower-level government jobs would mean an exodus of experienced scientists.
Those who remained might become more cautious about their research decisions to avoid trouble.
The second step is to create a job that appears to basically be an anti-climate change czar. Project 2025 proposes creating a position of “science adviser” and six senior political appointees who would be charged with “overseeing and reforming” research at the Environmental Protection Agency, emphasizing that these political overseers should be hired for their “management, oversight and execution skills,” rather than scientific expertise.
Imagine something like the final scene of an episode of “The Apprentice,” only with Trump hauling climate scientists into the boardroom to dramatically fire them. That may be exciting for the oil and gas industry and some of Trump’s supporters but not for the two-thirds of Americans in a recent Pew Research Center survey who said they support the country’s taking steps to become carbon neutral by 2050.
(If you want to understand the depth of disdain here, the section on the EPA was written by Mandy Gunasekara. The Drilled newsletter points out she’s in the famous 2015 photo of her then-boss, the late Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., holding up a snowball in the Senate as an attempt to disprove climate change.)
The report goes further, proposing dramatically downsizing the National Weather Service and leaving weather forecasting to private companies. That could hamper its ability to issue public warnings about floods, hurricanes and other dangers, just as we are seeing more intense and frequent extreme-weather events due to the human-caused increase in greenhouse gases.
That’s not all. Other sections of Project 2025 propose ending subsidies for wind and solar power; cutting research into wind, solar and battery technology needed to help transition away from fossil fuels; ending federal mandates and subsidies for electric vehicles; and expanding drilling for oil and natural gas on federal lands. As Trump said in his convention speech, “we will drill, baby, drill.”
The efforts would not be limited to the U.S., either. A section on foreign aid proposes rolling back efforts to help developing countries transition away from fossil fuels, arguing that they are “unachievable.” But then it goes further, arguing that the U.S. should spend taxpayer dollars persuading these countries to burn more oil and gas.
The U.S. Agency for International Development, the proposal says, “should cease its war on fossil fuels in the developing world and support the responsible management of oil and gas reserves as the quickest way to end wrenching poverty.”
Taken together, these proposals would not just make it harder to fight climate change but actively make it worse. A second Trump administration would be rolling coal on the entire planet.
How Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Compare on Climate Change
How Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Compare on Climate Change
This article by Yale Climate Connections is published here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.
President Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris appears likely to secure the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.
As vice president, Harris cast the tiebreaking vote in the passage of the Biden administration’s signature achievement on climate change, the Inflation Reduction Act.
As Yale Climate Connections contributor Barbara Grady previously reported, “The most far-reaching climate law in history, the Inflation Reduction Act is catalyzing a transition in the U.S. economy toward cleaner energy and cleaner transportation – a shift the International Energy Agency, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and others say must happen for the world to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases to the levels scientists say would avert the most catastrophic and irreversible climate chaos.”
Harris has made clear throughout her career that she views climate change as a significant threat. Speaking at the 2023 United Nations climate summit in Dubai, she told leaders, “Across our world, communities are choked by drought, washed out by floods, and decimated by hurricanes. Wildfire smoke darkens our skies, and rising seas threaten the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. The urgency of this moment is clear. The clock is no longer just ticking, it is banging. And we must make up for lost time.”
Related video: Trump: ‘Sick’ Kamala Harris is no Margaret Thatcher (The Telegraph)
If elected president, Harris is “widely expected to try to protect the climate achievements of the Biden administration,” according to the New York Times.
In contrast, Trump has falsely called climate change a hoax. During his term as president, as Grady reported, “he overturned an estimated 100 environmental regulations and pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement. He shrank the EPA and required that the words ‘climate change’ be removed from its website. On the campaign trail this time, he has repeatedly said one of his top priorities is to boost oil and gas production and free up more public land to ‘Drill, baby, drill.’”
If Trump wins a second term as president, he and his allies say they aim to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act and downsize the EPA.
On July 22, Harris received endorsements from several large environmental organizations, including the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, the NRDC Action Fund, the Sierra Club Political Committee, and Clean Energy for American Action.
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“The last three and a half years of the Biden-Harris administration could not contrast more starkly with Trump and other extreme MAGA Republicans, and the stakes for this election could not be higher,” the organizations wrote in a joint statement. “A second term would be far worse for our climate and our democracy.”
What is Project 2025? Trump, Climate, and a Second Term
Project 2025, a 992-page conservative plan for a second Trump term, calls for elimination of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, gutting of the National Weather Service, repeal of Biden’s clean energy subsidies, and axing the National Flood Insurance Program.
It also calls for drilling in the Arctic and cuts to climate change work by government agencies. That includes the U.S. Agency for International Development, which, the authors write, “should cease its war on fossil fuels in the developing world and support the responsible management of oil and gas reserves as the quickest way to end wrenching poverty and the need for open-ended foreign aid.”
For more on Trump’s climate record, read this article.
Kamala Harris and Climate Change
Here’s an overview of Harris’s views and actions related to climate change, sourced from news and White House reports.
She connects extreme weather to climate change.
“Every day, around the world, the impact of the climate crisis is stark and it is vivid. We are seeing it in real time,” she said in a 2023 speech. “Across our nation, we see communities choked by drought, washed out by flood, and decimated by hurricanes.” White House
She has supported the Green New Deal, a carbon fee, and increased government spending on climate change.
As a 2020 presidential candidate, her climate plan “called for a $10 trillion increase in spending over a decade.” New York Times (gift link)
“Harris also called for a ‘climate pollution fee” that would ‘make polluters pay for emitting greenhouse gases into our atmosphere,’ and she indicated that a Harris administration would strengthen its enforcement and prosecution of fossil fuel companies.” ABC News
As a U.S. senator from California, Harris co-sponsored the Green New Deal, which called for an FDR-style overhaul of the economy that would accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to clean technology. The Green New Deal has not been enacted.
She has woven climate change into foreign relations.
Harris attended the 2023 United Nations climate summit in Dubai, where “she announced a U.S. commitment to double energy efficiency and triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. At that same conference, Harris announced a $3 billion commitment to the Green Climate Fund to help developing nations adapt to climate challenges, although Politico reported that the sum was ‘subject to the availability of funds,’ according to the Treasury Department.” Grist
She held “a round table in Bangkok to connect environmental activists with clean energy experts” and started “a partnership with Caribbean countries to address climate change.” New York Times (gift link)
She connects climate change to justice.
As vice president, “Harris argued for the allocation of $20 billion for the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, aimed at aiding disadvantaged communities facing climate impacts.” Grist
She’s a fan of heat pumps. Heat pumps use electricity to heat and cool homes and are seen as a keyway to reducing climate pollution.
“I have mad respect for those who are putting them together and installing them,” she said in a 2022 speech. White House
She regularly makes the connection between lower energy costs and renewable energy. Key quotes:
“On average, families that switch to an electric heat pump can save up to $500 a year on their energy bill. And since heat pumps do not burn oil or gas, they also mean cleaner air inside your home.” White House
“In addition to lowering costs and creating jobs, this investment will also help us fight the climate crisis.” White House
“By helping families pay the upfront cost for energy efficiency upgrades to their homes, we are also lowering energy bills, bringing down household costs, creating jobs, and fighting the climate crisis. It’s all connected.” White House
She notes that investments in renewable energy can lead to job creation. Key quotes:
“Across the country, we have created more than 175,000 new clean energy jobs. Just so far. More to go.” White House
Her Women in the Sustainable Economy initiative aims to provide job training for women in climate-smart industries. White House
She says she supports and is inspired by young climate activists.
“These young leaders are guiding our nation in our climate fight. And as they have told me their work is driven by their hope and their determination. Hope, because they know we still have time to make a difference. And their determination is the determination to correct the course,” she said in 2023. White House
She’s been an opponent of fracking.
As a 2020 presidential candidate, “She also favored a ban on hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, which Mr. Biden said he opposed. Fracking is a technique that injects water and chemicals underground at high pressure to extract oil or gas that is otherwise difficult to access.” New York Times (gift link)
As California’s attorney general, she “challenged federal approvals of offshore fracking along the California coast.” New York Times (gift link)
She’s challenged polluting companies.
As California’s attorney general, “she investigated whether Exxon Mobil lied to the public and its shareholders about the risks to its business from climate change and whether such actions could amount to securities fraud and violations of environmental laws, but the case did not result in a prosecution.” New York Times (gift link)
“Harris secured an $86 million settlement from Volkswagen for rigging its vehicles with emissions-cheating software and investigated ExxonMobil over its climate change disclosures. She also filed a lawsuit against Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips for environmental violations at gas stations, which eventually resulted in a $11.5 million settlement. And she conducted a criminal investigation of an oil company over a 2015 spill in Santa Barbara. The company was found guilty and convicted on nine criminal charges.” Grist
As San Francisco’s district attorney, “Harris created an environmental justice unit to address environmental crimes affecting San Francisco’s poorest residents and prosecuted several companies including U-Haul for violation of hazardous waste laws. Harris later touted her environmental justice unit as the first such unit in the country. An investigation found the unit only filed a handful of lawsuits, though, and none of them were against the city’s major industrial polluters.” Grist
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