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From The Guardian - Climate Change
Summary
If Trump wins the upcoming election, it could severely hinder global climate efforts. His dismissive views on climate change, alongside policies favoring fossil fuels and fossil fuel donors, threaten to reverse progress made in renewable energy adoption and international climate agreements. This could result in billions of additional carbon emissions, exacerbating the climate crisis for generations.
Highlights -🌍
- Climate Crisis Intensifies: The planet continues to heat, leading to severe weather disasters. 🔥
- Renewable Energy Growth: Solar and wind energy are finally gaining traction, with significant installations underway. ☀️
- Trump’s Climate Ignorance: His recent comments reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of climate science.
- Project 2025 Agenda: Trump’s policies aim to bolster fossil fuels while sidelining renewable energy initiatives. ⚡
- Global Impact: A Trump presidency could derail international climate cooperation and agreements. 🌐
- Economic Cost: Trump’s win could lead to an additional 4 billion tonnes of emissions by 2030, costing the global economy $900 billion. 💰
- Urgency of Action: The timeline for significant emissions reductions is critical; inaction could have lasting consequences. ⏳
Here is the biggest thing happening on our planet as we head into the autumn of 2024: the Earth is continuing to heat dramatically. Scientists have said that there’s a better than 90% chance that this year will top 2023 as the warmest ever recorded. And paleoclimatologists were pretty sure last year was the hottest in the last 125,000 years. The result is an almost-cliched run of disasters: open Twitter/X anytime for pictures of floods pushing cars through streets somewhere. It is starting to make life on this planet very difficult, and in some places impossible. And it’s on target to get far, far worse.
Here’s the second-biggest thing happening on our planet right now: finally, finally, renewable energy, mostly from the sun and wind, seems to be reaching some sort of takeoff point. By some calculations, we’re now putting up a nuclear plant’s worth of solar panels every day. In California, there are now enough solar farms and wind turbines that day after day this spring and summer they supplied more than 100% of the state’s electric needs for long stretches; there are now enough batteries on the grid that they become the biggest source of power after dark. In China it looks as if carbon emissions may have peaked – they’re six years ahead of schedule on the effort to build out renewables.
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Read the full post at The Guardian - Climate Change.
