Donald Trump’s win could be catastrophic for the world’s climate, as well as international diplomacy, as American leadership is transformed

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a sign supporting coal during a rally at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. (Photograph)

This November is likely to have profound implications for climate change – but not in the way that was anticipated just a week ago. The Paris climate deal came into force on 4 November but Tuesday’s election of Donald Trump as US president casts an ominous shadow over the agreement and the chances of avoiding dangerous global warming.

Trump is a highly erratic figure, so predicting his actions can be problematic. But we do know that he wants to withdraw the US from the Paris accord, which aims to keep the global temperature increase below a 2C threshold, that he believes climate change to be a “hoax” and that Barack Obama’s warning that global warming is a threat on a par with terrorism was “one of the dumbest statements I’ve ever heard in politics.”

Obama’s climate legacy, and the tools he used to force down emissions, are set to be torn apart by Trump once he enters the White House. Contentious oil pipelines such as Keystone and Dakota Access will likely be approved. Clean energy funding will be slashed. The world’s second largest greenhouse gas emitter will look to prop up coal, rather than renewables, to power its future.

This could prove catastrophic for the world’s climate, as well as international diplomacy, as American leadership is transformed into an excuse to slack off in cutting emissions. Already, the 2C threshold looks in severe peril. 8 November could be the day when tens of millions of people were condemned to an unlivable environment. A Trump u-turn on this matter, at least, would be welcomed by those most at risk.

Read my report today for the full story: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/11/trump-presidency-a-disaster-for-the-planet-climate-change

>>> Oliver Milman, US environment correspondent, The Guardian

Keep It In The Ground. Guardian News & Media Limited – a member of Guardian Media Group PLC: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9GU.

The Paris climate agreement is now official

Environment groups hail ‘momentous occasion’ but warn governments need to cut carbon emissions more steeply to avoid dangerous global warming

PHOTO: The French president and foreign minister, along with the UN secretary general and UN climate chief, celebrate the Paris climate change deal.

The significance of the Paris agreement coming into force today is easy to miss: it may seem like an anti-climax, given the travails that led up to its signing last December.

But the moment is of huge importance. This is the first time that a legally-binding agreement, signed by all of the world’s functioning governments, has laid down a commitment to limit the growth of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere with the goal of preventing global warming exceeding 2C above pre-industrial levels.

This figure was not plucked out of the increasingly carbon-rich air. It is the limit of what scientists regard as safety, beyond which climate change will run out of control, unstoppable in its damaging effects.

There are caveats. The Paris agreement is legally binding in forcing governments to accept and cater for the 2C limit. But the commitments on curbing greenhouse gas emissions in line with that goal are not legally binding. This means incoming governments can renege upon them. There are no sanctions for governments that flout the goals.

The outcome of the US presidential election will be key. Donald Trump, the Republican candidate whose polling has improved markedly in recent days, has vowed to cancel the US’s participation in the Paris agreement. Russia has also failed to ratify the agreement, along with several other nations. China has ratified, but if US participation is not forthcoming under a future Trump government, that may be off.

So while the agreement should be hailed as a massive and historic step forward in international efforts to avoid dangerous levels of global warming, it is potentially fragile.

Meanwhile, the signs of danger are growing increasingly strong. This year is almost certain, according to Nasa, to be the warmest on record, following last year’s record-setting temperatures. This gives the lie to the claims of warming-dismissers that the upward march of global temperatures has “paused”.

Next year may not set records, but the trend is clear. We are on a trajectory that may lead to warming that is unprecedented and potentially irreversible. While there are other encouraging signs – the growth in renewable energy use around the world, the small reductions in emissions in some major economies – we should be in no doubt. The real work of Paris remains to be done.

Fiona Harvey, Environment correspondent, The Guardian, November 4, 2016

But, after all, so much less is at stake in this battle. Only the survival of humanity and the world’s other creatures. Not that big a deal compared with the importance of maintaining the profits of the few and the convenience of the many.

Mary Wildfire, Roane County, WV

Stephen Mulkey, PhD, November 4, 2016

“Elections have consequences.” – Barack Obama, November 5, 2008.

“Have you solved climate change yet?” – A serious query from a non-scientist friend who knows that I work on this issue.

Climate change is complex. Within the scientific community, there is a broad consensus about its reality and cause, but experts hold a range of opinions about its impacts and how to address it. As any public scientist can tell you, it is hard to articulate a simple and compelling description of how the change of a few hundred parts per million of a trace gas can lead to potentially catastrophic consequences. Although complex in its interactions with natural systems, it is broadly correct to say that climate change presently amplifies the ongoing disruption of the biosphere driven by the forces of habitat destruction and extractive use of natural resources.

By midcentury and beyond it will increasingly be a primary driver of the global transformation of ecosystems. The changes ensuing over this and coming centuries will be tectonic, but this message of scientific complexity and consequences does not play well in Peoria. Once again, the US political process has not made understanding this most critical of issues a prerequisite for the job of president.

Continue reading “The Election and A Call to Service in The Anthropocene”→

https://environmentalcentury.net/author/stephenmulkey/

Dear Friends, Date: November 4, 2016

Today is an historic day! The Paris Climate Agreement will become international law.  Currently 96 countries have ratified the agreement, representing just over two-thirds of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.  The Paris agreement will reduce emissions toward a shared goal of keeping global warming under 2 degrees Celsius, with an aspirational target of no more than 1.5 degrees.

We must begin immediately to “accelerate the momentum” and increase the ambition, according to Christiana Figueres, the former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. This will be necessary, because so far the emissions reductions pledged by countries are not adequate to keeping warming even to 2 degrees. When asked how we can help, she said, “non-state actors (such as religious denominations, and organizations like IPL) can outline our own strong commitments to achieve a zero-emissions economy.”

If you haven’t already, you can do your part and sign the Paris Pledge today to reduce your carbon footprint and take the first step to accelerate the momentum of Paris.

Faith groups across the nation have made the Paris Pledge commitment and are responding to the moral call to protect our climate and our planet. Below are just two examples of hundreds of success stories:

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Seattle installed solar panels and saved 29% of its electric bills in the first year. St. Andrew’s has reduced its annual carbon emissions by over seven tons of carbon a year, from 63 tons to 56 tons, an 11% reduction from our baseline. 

The Franciscan Renewal Center in Arizona used the Cool Congregations “25 Steps under $25” and worked up to bigger energy efficiency projects such as weatherstripping and replacing 13 of their oldest refrigerators.  Their CO2 emissions declined by 27,000 pounds annually!

Has your congregation already taken the Paris Pledge? Has your faith community worked on or planned a project this year to be more energy efficient, use renewable energy, or green your grounds? If so, submit the work you have been doing to potentially win $1,000 in the Cool Congregations Challenge.

Faith communities across the world have responded to the moral call for a safe climate for our children and our grandchildren.  Today we can be proud to say that the IPL community is part of the faithful advocating for stronger action from our government, helping to protect the most vulnerable, and making a difference in our community. Global warming is a big problem, but working together we can solve it.

With interfaith hope,

The Rev. Canon Sally G. Bingham
President, Interfaith Power & Light