Читать книгу The Case for Impeachment - - Страница 11

Scientists have long warned that climate change poses a threat to humanity’s well-being and survival, and yet there are those who still insist on denying it. “There is no morally responsible way to downplay the dangers that negligent policies—expected to accelerate human-caused climate change—pose to humankind,” said Lawrence Torcello, an associate professor of moral and political philosophy at the University of Rochester. “There can be no greater crime against humanity than the foreseeable, and methodical, destruction of conditions that make human life possible … We will search in vain for a better reason to depose elected officials.”³⁰

I am not advocating impeachment over a policy difference, but rather saying that impeachment should take place only upon proof that President Trump’s retreat on climate change threatens the well-being and survival of humanity. As I previously explained, crimes against the environment as a form of genocide are well recognized in international law. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria have inarguably brought the tragedies of climate change home to the American people, and yet, in their wakes, the statements issued by Trump have been contradictory. “Hurricane Irma is of epic proportion, perhaps bigger than we have ever seen,” Trump tweeted. But when asked to comment about recent storms and climate change, Trump contradicted himself, saying, “We’ve had bigger storms than this,” referring vaguely to storms that occurred in the 1930s and ’40s. Trump is “just not correct,” said meteorology professor Kerry Andrew Emanuel, an authority on hurricanes. Harvey soaked Texas and Louisiana with a record 51 inches of rainfall, and Irma was the most sustained Category 5 hurricane on record. The bill for these storms may top $200 billion, far exceeding the cost of any two storms in U.S. history. Following closely in their wake, Maria obliterated Puerto Rico and shattered historical precedent in the process. Never in recorded history had three Atlantic hurricanes of at least Category 4 force made landfall in a single year—until 2017.³¹

It would be false to claim that climate change creates hurricanes, but warmer water temperatures do strengthen hurricanes, thereby increasing their intensity, and rising sea levels make for more severe storm surges. This toxic mix is a recipe for the perfect catastrophic storm. “The most dangerous myth that we have bought into as a society is not the myth that climate isn’t changing or that humans aren’t responsible,” said Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. “It’s the myth that ‘It doesn’t matter to me.’ And that’s why this is absolutely the time to be talking about the way climate change amplifies or exacerbates these natural events. This brings it home.”³²

And the effects of climate change are not limited to destructive storms; they’ve also given us droughts, heat waves, record floods, and runaway wildfires like those that have claimed dozens of lives in California. New studies carry dire warnings for our future. A September 2017 study by NASA researchers found that warming Antarctica waters recently led to a tripling of the amount of ice loss. The greater the ice melt, the more that sea levels will rise. A July 2017 study by the Union of Concerned Scientists warned that 90 American communities already face chronic flooding and that this number will likely rise to 170 by 2035 and to 490 by 2100. At century’s end, chronic flooding will afflict “40 percent of all oceanfront communities on the East and Gulf Coast,” including Cambridge, Massachusetts; Oakland, California; Miami and St. Petersburg, Florida; and four of the five boroughs of New York City. If, however, the world met the emission reduction goals of the Paris Accord, which Trump has repudiated, the great majority of U.S. communities (380 of 490) could avoid this grim, watery fate.³³

In June 2017, Trump followed through on his promise to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. Rumors circulating in September that Trump might be reconsidering his decision sparked hope among the environmentally minded, but the White House was quick to deny them. Climate Advisers has quantified the “Trump Effect” from his retreat on climate change as equaling by 2025 an enormous annual increase of nearly half a gigaton of new greenhouse gas pollution.³⁴