Trump Victory Is a ‘Gut Punch’ to U.S. Climate Action

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-victory-is-a-gut-punch-to-u-s-climate-action/

by donnieyz0gro

40 comments

  1. It’s beyond a gut punch, it’s a bullet in the back of the head

  6. Yeah we’re about to move from Liberal inaction to outright hostility to climate action. It’s rul bad.

  7. The Republicans won; POTUS, Senate, House (looking that way), Popular Vote, and Governorships. Let that sink in.

  9. Well boys, it was a pleasure knowing you. Best of luck as we figure out how to survive the inevitable collapse.

  10. This finally got me off my ass to get out of Florida. I already contacted a real estate agent in Minneapolis area (maybe New Hampshire as well) and will try to move by this coming summer. Duluth seems more secure from climate change than the Twin Cities area, but it would be easier to find a job in Minneapolis in case something happens to my remote job. Regardless, it will be an improvement from Florida.

  11. What is going to save us is if the other industrialized countries in Europe, Japan, Canada, Korea, etc. start banning American products for lack of environmental protections. Hurt the pocket books of American companies to make them to force the Trump government to pass tougher environmental regulations.

  13. Biden screwed the pooch here.

    He hardly did anything for climate change – it was a low priority, with union jobs being the much higher priority. The number one source for solar modules is China, and he decided that climate change action was a lesser priority than protectionism – which is so wrong headed, because so many US jobs depended on cheap and widespread availability of solar modules. Out of the $2.75 to $4 per watt residential solar install cost, China receives about $0.05 of profit. For that nickel, Biden was willing to sacrifice US installer jobs (the vast majority of solar jobs) and reduced climate change action as a result. For every $1 spent on solar, he guaranteed that there would be less watts installed, slowing the transition.

    He was also slow.. terribly slow at taking action and cutting red tape. There’s a lot of things an executive could have done without legislative support in getting $$$ already allocated to be spent effectively on environmental causes.

    He also knuckled under with gas inflation price pressure and increased oil production dramatically… and lots of Democrats continued to buy gas vehicles. If green causes were so important, why did Democrats buy more gas vehicles? His IRA EV tax credit system removed lots of tax credits, placed onerous sourcing requirements that cut out demand. And no, just saying stop buying cars doesn’t work… it’s a proxy for not doing anything.

    Biden also didn’t reverse a crap ton of Trump era tariffs which he had criticized at the time Trump instituted them. That also meant that prices stayed higher for longer. Biden could have lowered tariffs causing lower prices which would have allowed the Fed to cut interest rates earlier, reducing the pricing pressures.

    Instead, Biden increased the tariffs on green energy components. If you were a Republican being told by Democrats that climate change action is a dire emergency and an existential crisis and that Democrats were raising the tariffs on green energy components, wouldn’t you think that the Democrats are lying about climate change?

    Lots of his IRA plan for public transport was just slow and would make little impact before someone could come along and cut it.

    Of course, the biggest problem was his own ego – he should have stepped aside after the midterms and let a normal primary process happen, because he and his team knew he wasn’t fit for another 4 years.

  14. It sure is. There wasn’t a great option, but this is the worst option.

  15. It’s mostly young people who didn’t vote and frankly, fuck em. I don’t have to deal with climate change, they do.

  17. We made perfect the enemy of good. We shouted down moderates. We villainized meat eaters. We guilt tripped people that like cars. 

    And a majority responded by voting for an orange buffoon that was big middle finger to us. 

    I can’t say I’m surprised but I am disappointed. 

  18. Gut punch is an understatement.

    This is just deciding to set the planet on fire.

  19. Honestly there’s no stopping climate change at this point. Harris would have slowed it but not reversed it. Trump will just accelerate it. It’s the difference between slow earth destruction or fast.

  20. The current election has destroyed my last bits of hope for a stable climate future.

  22. “Gut punch” isn’t strong enough a word. We are fucked. RFK already talking about gutting the FDA on live TV…so imagine what is going to happen to other agencies? NOAA is done. They’re about to roll back so many regulations. Any small chance of pushing off total climate collapse is out the window. The Earth can’t handle what the next 4 years is about to bring. The future is lost.

  23. It’s a gut punch to the planet, not just US. Way beyond environmentally. Economically, socially. It’s going to be so bad Afghanistan will start offering asylum for US Women. Okay, maybe that’s going too far.

  25. Fuck all the tankies, accelerationists, and fake progressives that stayed home

  26. Don’t let this stop you acting and caring about the climate.

    I’d rather be rearranging deck chairs on the titanic than jumping into the water.

  27. It’s more than a gut punch, it’s a decapitation. We already had no momentum on combating climate change, now we’re aggressively moving backwards and thanks to last night, in the next few crucial decades nothing will be done at the government level.

  29. Collapse on every level is happening. Climate, wildlife, and insects are being decimated and it does not bode well for all living things. Not only is the US no more, so will go civilization everywhere. All the fault of greed and power.

  30. It’s not a gut punch. It’s a drag of the chainsaw at the hip.

  31. We will still have people telling everyone “there is still hope to reverse climate change!” The boat has sailed. In fact it did a while ago, but this just cements it.

  32. It’s over for climate action now. It’s all about mitigation as much as possible as ecosystems start to fail around us in the coming years.

  33. Yes but you know RFK is going to save everyone’s health…. Like the environment doesn’t have a direct impact on our health….. mind boggling what I’ve been reading today on socials by people who call themselves health guru’s.

  34. America just ensured the end of humanity and most of Earth’s creatures. Great fucking job.

  35. Future generations of humanity may forgive those of us who were here in 2024. But they really shouldn’t.

  36. Americans want wild and extreme, they are going to get wild and extreme.

  37. I voted for climate in mind (among other factors also, to be fair). To see someone like him who’s against science, who had people die under his watch during the pandemic, win…..words fail to adequately how I feel right now. 

  39. No kidding. Climate is so bad there are whole forests burning to the ground in Canada and, still, people don’t realize it is a top issue: 1st or 2nd place. Immigration isn’t going to kill us. Crime is down. Inflation is down. Trans kids don’t carry cooties. People get bogged down in distracting, secondary or tertiary problems.

  40. It’s not a gut punch it is a guillotine. We were on course for 3,1 ° warming in the next decades, now this figure cannot but rise significatevely. Americans just doomed the majority of life on Earth

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