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https://reneweconomy.com.au/are-you-ok-world-teeters-on-brink-as-trump-and-cronies-prepare-to-flood-the-zone-with-shit/>
"Are you OK? It seems an important question as the unhinged and unrestrained
president Donald Trump is swept back into power and the world contemplates the
implications for the climate, for civil discourse, for women, for minorities,
for society as a whole, and for our children and their children.
We have, of course, been here before. This time round, however, the guard rails
have been removed: Trump will be back in the White House and in control of the
Senate, the House of Representatives, the judiciary and, thanks to fellow and
like minded billionaires who own it or fund it, mainstream and social media.
Only the filibuster stands in his way.
It’s a kick in the guts to those who care about the future. The implications
weigh heavy on anyone minded to consider them: Trump is a climate denier who
describes the science as a hoax and his vow to wind back policies and frack,
frack, frack, will – according to the best estimates – add around four billion
tonnes of CO₂ equivalent by 2030, when the opposite needs to happen.
That, of course, means that the small window to cap average global warming
within the Paris climate target of 1.5°C is all but lost. But by how big a
margin it will be missed will depend on the actions elsewhere in the world.
That includes Australia but mostly it is China, whose role could get
complicated with the threat of a tariff war.
Trump has been especially enabled by the likes of Tesla and Twitter/X boss Elon
Musk, who used to say that his prime mission was to end the use of fossil fuels
in the grid and transport with electric cars, storage and renewables.
Musk’s technology, the cars and the batteries in particular, have helped tip
the balance towards a green energy transition. But he now appears more
concerned by other ideological pursuits.
Bizarrely, Musk now dismisses the science – maybe if greenhouse emissions get
close to 1,000 parts per million it might be hard to breathe, he has said. He
is obsessed about getting to Mars, and is happy to enable and promote
misogynists and conspiracy theorists on his social media platform. On earth, or
at least in cyberspace and the Metaverse, Musk is, to borrow a phrase, flooding
the zone with shit."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
