Category Archives: United States

Climate Change, Environment, Europe, Government, Politics, Society, United States

The Paris Climate Accord teeters on the brink thanks to Trump

PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT

Donald Trump’s recent announcement that he was pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord was met with dismay by many around the world. But Mr Trump has done what few politicians are capable of by actually doing what he pledged prior to being elected. Many businesses would agree with President Trump, saying that the agreement was ‘a self-inflicted major economic wound.’

The UN Climate Change conference in Paris in November 2015 was a last-ditch and desperate attempt to get any kind of agreement and by getting the reluctant developing nations on board. These annual climate conferences have been going on now for over 22 years. Each symposium, in mostly exotic locations, have seen tens of thousands of delegates flying in for the gatherings and creating thousands of tonnes of additional and unnecessary emissions. Their personal carbon footprints are the polar opposite of what they claim to be aiming for, a reduction in greenhouse gases to prevent the calamities of global warming.

The Paris Accord had many objectives, among them an agreement for nations to have targets in reducing emissions. But these were written into the treaty as being voluntary, not legally binding, and there are no penalties for failure. That of course does not include the UK and Scotland who recklessly passed legally-binding Climate Change Acts in 2008. China, one of the world’s biggest polluters through its heavy use of fossil fuels, said it would not be reducing its emissions until after 2030.

Scientists have said that the ‘promises’ made in Paris amount to less than half of what is essentially needed to stop a litany of runaway global disasters. We may be inclined to ask where the rest is to come from? Population control? Consider the statistical data: 1995 – 5.7billion; 2017 – 7.5billion; 2050 – 9.7billion; 2100 – 11.2billion.

A key aspect of getting the developing nations to agree to the Paris Accord was the commitment from the richest nations to contribute £78billion every year to the Green Climate Fund. This was aimed in helping poorer countries make the costly shift to cleaner energy sources and to shore up defences against the impact of climate change. The UK promised £720million but President Trump has now withdrawn America’s £2.3billion.

Already, many East European states – amongst them Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic – are mounting a behind-the-scenes revolt against the Paris Agreement.

America is now energy independent, with its abundance of shale gas. Mr Trump’s desire to un-mothball many coal mining sites in the US by making them fully operational again is vindicated if we consider the enormous tonnage of coal exported to Europe, America’s best customer. Europe relies, too, on Russian gas for one-third of all its supplies. Coal, oil and gas are the nemesis of the green lobby.

China, which accounts for 30 per cent of global emissions, is deliberately leaving its coal reserves in the ground for a rainy day. Meanwhile, it is importing coal from America and Africa. A host of countries – China, India, Japan, Germany, South Korea, South Africa, Turkey, the Philippines, as well as countries within the EU – have plans to build an additional 1,892 coal-fired plants to the existing 3,722.

The theory of global warming and climate science has become almost a religion with a cult following, while the renewables revolution has been an environmental disaster. EU countries are planning to significantly increase the number of trees they cut down and burn, thus greatly reducing the forest carbon sink they would otherwise provide. They have completely ignored the fact that new trees will take 20 years to grow before they absorb the equivalent of the CO2 released by burning.

Crucially, without American financial support the Paris Agreement will collapse. It will do so because other Western countries will be unwilling to shoulder a share of the £2.3bn that the U.S. will no longer contribute.

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Climate Change, Donald Trump, Economic, Environment, Global warming, Government, Politics, United Nations, United States

Anger as Donald Trump pulls US out of climate deal

PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT

US President Donald Trump announces his decision that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.

The world’s consensus on fighting global warming was shattered this week as Donald Trump said he was pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

In an address from the Rose Garden at the White House, the President said he would seek to renegotiate terms that are ‘fair to the United States.’

The move has caused an international outcry, with a string of figures from Barack Obama to EU leaders speaking out against the controversial decision.

Mr Trump said the Paris accord was ‘a self-inflicted major economic wound’ and argued his decision was based on a desire to put America first.

The 2015 deal has killed American jobs, would cost billions of dollars, and put the US at a huge disadvantage to the rest of the world, Mr Trump said.

He said: ‘In order to fulfil my solemn duty to the United States and its citizens, the US will withdraw from the Paris climate accord, but begin negotiations to re-enter either the Paris accord or a really entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States.’

The Paris accord ‘is very unfair at the highest level to the United States,’ the President added.

Signed by 195 countries, the Paris Agreement commits nations to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide to stop the world overheating. By limiting global temperatures to no more than 2C above pre-industrial times, it is hoped it will stop heatwaves, droughts, rising sea levels, crop failures and storms.

But the President questioned the impact of the deal. He said he ‘represents the citizens of Pittsburgh not Paris’, said it was ‘time to make America great again,’ and that he would make full use of America’s ‘abundant energy reserves’.

He said he ‘cares deeply about the environment’ and the US would remain ‘the cleanest country on earth’.

But the Paris Agreement ‘hamstrings’ the US and has led to other countries ‘laughing at the US’.

Mr Trump said: ‘The Paris accord would undermine our economy, hamstring our workers, weaken our sovereignty, impose unacceptable legal risk, and put us at a permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world.’

He said that there are millions of citizens out of work in the US, ‘yet under the Paris accord billions of dollars that ought to be invested right here in America will be sent to the very countries that have taken our factories and jobs away from us’. Under the terms of the accord, a deal could take at least three years – lasting until November 2020 – the same month Mr Trump is up for re-election.

Only Nicaragua and Syria have failed to sign up to the agreement and all the major industrialised nations, except for Russia, have ratified it. China and the EU have also affirmed their commitment to deeper action.

Former president Mr Obama, who signed the US up to the deal, said in a statement: ‘Even in the absence of American leadership, even as this administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future, I’m confident that our states, cities and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help to protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.’

The EU’s commissioner for climate change, Miguel Arias Canete, said: ‘Today is a sad day for the global community, as a key partner turns its back on the fight against climate change. The EU deeply regrets the unilateral decision by the Trump administration.’

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the decision was a ‘disappointment for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security’.

French President Emmanuel Macron made a five-minute phone call to Mr Trump following his announcement. Mr Macron is believed to have said nothing was renegotiable with regard to the Paris accord. The United States and France will continue to work together, but not on the subject of the climate.

Italy, France and Germany dismissed the President’s suggestion that the global pact could be revised. In a joint statement, they said: ‘We firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated, since it is a vital instrument for our planet.’

Greenpeace UK has reacted with anger. The environmental organisation said: ‘The government that launched the Apollo space programme and help found the UN has turned its back on science and international co-operation.’

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Science, Technology, United States

Scientists set sights on the Sun in understanding life and mankind

NASA: PARKER SOLAR PROBE

An artist’s impression of the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft approaching the sun.

The space race, once notorious for its drama and political intrigue in recent decades, still has the adroitness to shock. Scientists at NASA, the US space agency, retain the capacity to astonish with their ambition and innovation.

In spite of all that science has discovered about our universe, NASA and its counterparts around the world have long been frustrated by how the Sun has closely guarded its secrets. But the Parker Solar Probe mission, scheduled to launch in 2018, promises to change all that.

In what will become humanity’s first voyage mission to visit a star, the pioneering undertaking will seek to unlock the mysteries at the centre of our solar system. These include the origins of solar winds and why the Sun’s outermost layer is hotter than its surface.

The findings, NASA believes, could have far-reaching implications for how to forecast weather events in space which impact on life on Earth.

The project is to be commissioned over a period of some seven years, at a cost of £1.1bn. Whilst eye-wateringly expensive, if the mission is successful those costs will be far outweighed by crucial scientific insights into the star that gives us heat and light.

The probe will begin its nebulous journey next summer. The world will likely watch on in wonder and hope as scientists search for answers in understanding some of the great enigmas of life and mankind.

. It has hitherto been impossible to enter the sun’s atmosphere, where temperatures start at almost 1,400C.

. The launch date has been given as being between July 31 and August 19, 2018, from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. A super-powered probe travelling at 118 miles per second will overcome the supersonic solar winds, flares and radiation to allow it to get as close to the sun as possible.

. Scientists predict that the Parker Solar Probe will fly to within 3.7million miles of the surface. A previous attempt to gain insight into the star, by Helios 2 in 1976, came within 27 million miles.

. The Sun is Earth’s closest star and is some 93million miles from Earth.

. By predicting major weather events in space would greatly help to combat the threat of communication networks being destroyed on Earth.

. To combat the intense heat, scientists have created a 4.5in carbon composite shield which will maintain the instruments used to record solar flares and shocks at room temperature.

. The probe itself is named in honour of astrophysicist Eugene Parker, now 89, who in 1958 did groundbreaking and pioneering work on understanding solar storms and the solar wind – a stream of charged particles emitted by the sun that causes the Northern Lights.

. Its seven-year mission will use the gravitational field of Venus to orbit the sun 24 times. Scientists predict the probe getting closest in December 2024.

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