Climate Change Fueling Violent Weather, While Trump Attacks Climate Science

Two interrelated stories concerning the unusually violent weather across the US this spring. First, looking at the effect of the warming temperatures in the Arctic on the jet stream:

The immediate driver of the violent weather is the jet stream, the powerful winds at high altitudes that sweep west to east across North America. The jet stream since May 14 has created conditions ripe for twisters. Seven deaths have been reported so far in the tornado assault of May. That’s a low death toll compared to some tornado seasons, but the steady, percussive nature of the storms — the daily pounding — has been anomalous. [snip]

There’s plenty of water in the mix, too. The Mississippi River is projected to reach 14 feet above flood stage in St. Louis, the second-highest on record. The river has been above flood stage at Vicksburg, Miss., since Feb. 17, the longest stretch of flooding since 1927, the year of the famed “Great Flood.” And the Arkansas River is rising rapidly and poised to approach record flood stages in Tulsa and other cities. There’s been too much rain and not enough places to put it.

Meanwhile it’s been so cold and wet in California that the ski resort of Mammoth has seen more than two feet of snow this month and may stay open until August.

What's going on?  Here's Jennifer Francis, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center:

Francis believes there’s a climate change signal in the extreme weather, including the tornadoes. Extreme warmth in and around Alaska, along with the reduction of Arctic sea ice, affects the flow of the jet stream, she said. A blob of warm air, and high atmospheric pressure, near Alaska has been fingered by many meteorologists as a flashing red light that something is very different about climate these days.

"... [S]omething is very different about climate these days."  Gee. What could it be?

The klaxon horns have been sounding for decades.

Meanwhile, the Trump regime is accelerating our march into ignorance and a dystopian future:

In the next few months, the White House will complete the rollback of the most significant federal effort to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, initiated during the Obama administration. It will expand its efforts to impose Mr. Trump’s hard-line views on other nations, building on his retreat from the Paris accord and his recent refusal to sign a communiqué to protect the rapidly melting Arctic region unless it was stripped of any references to climate change.

And, in what could be Mr. Trump’s most consequential action yet, his administration will seek to undermine the very science on which climate change policy rests. [snip]

As a result, parts of the federal government will no longer fulfill what scientists say is one of the most urgent jobs of climate science studies: reporting on the future effects of a rapidly warming planet and presenting a picture of what the earth could look like by the end of the century if the global economy continues to emit heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution from burning fossil fuels. (our emphasis)

Layering upon the undying fealty of the rotted out Republican Party to the fossil fuel industry, the shitheels now have a narcissistic moron in the highest office in the land whose main motivation seems to be undoing any achievement of President Obama that could be measured against that same sick, weak, narcissistic moron.  No matter what the consequences.

You might call it the perfect storm.

Breathe Deeply, It May Be Your Last Chance

While media focus is largely on the escapades of sexual predator and sociopath Donald "Rump" Trump's (a.k.a. President Spanky), his flying monkeys in government are enacting some horrific and damaging policies, replacing those that were put in place by President Obama and his predecessors. The Associated Press is reporting that Rump's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is set to announce a roll back of auto mileage standards, which were key to Obama's climate change initiatives and which will add to the carbon pollution in this country if curtailed or recinded. The current regulations call for new vehicles to have a 36 mpg standard for highway traffic by 2025.

Relatively lower gas prices have made the purchase of larger and less fuel efficient vehicles possible. Automakers are telling the Rump administration that they need relief from the standards, given the shift in public tastes. The main problem for Rump's climate despoilers is that progressive California's standards are at the 36 mpg level and a dozen states follow California's standards, involving roughly a third of vehicles sold in the U.S.

Much of what animates sociopath Rump is his deep envy and all-consuming hatred of President Obama, who towers far above him in achievements, popularity and character. Rump knows that and it eats him alive, so he needs to destroy any legacy of his. But it's also the mission of right-wing corporate vandals that have joined Rump's swamp creatures in D.C., doing the bidding of the fossil fuel and auto industries as they do under every Rethuglican administration. The solution? Organize, register and vote this November and every election to send them and their dirty baggage packing. Compromised air quality and climate change  denial may not be the immediate danger posed by rampant gun nuttery, but it's a species killer in the long run and has to be opposed.

(photo: Here's your mega-monster guzzler, 40 gallons per mile. Gun rack optional!)

Trump's Assault On The Environment, Cont.

This shouldn't bother anyone, since neo- fascist planet destroying dolt Donald "Rump" Trump says climate change is just "a Chinese hoax" anyway:

President Trump will take the most significant step yet in obliterating his predecessor’s environmental record Tuesday, instructing federal regulators to rewrite key rules curbing U.S. carbon emissions. 

The sweeping executive order also seeks to lift a moratorium on federal coal leasing and remove the requirement that federal officials consider the impact of climate change when making decisions. 

The order sends an unmistakable signal that just as President Barack Obama sought to weave climate considerations into every aspect of the federal government, Trump is hoping to rip that approach out by its roots.  (our emphasis)

Encouraging more fossil fuel extraction while removing Federal requirements for climate considerations in policy development represents the opening round in the Trump regime's efforts to roll back advances in addressing climate change and environmental quality.  Still being debated is whether the U.S. will withdraw from the 2015 Paris agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, there are some legal obstacles to what the Trump regime would like to do:

The centerpiece of the new presidential directive, telling the Environmental Protection Agency to begin rewriting the 2015 regulation that limits greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants, will trigger a laborious rulemaking process and a possible legal fight.

The agency must first get permission from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where the rule is tied up in litigation, to revisit the matter. Then, agency officials will have to justify reaching the opposite conclusion of the Obama EPA, which argued it was technically feasible and legally warranted to reduce carbon pollution by about one-third by 2030, compared with 2005 levels. 

Keep in mind, this is all purportedly to resuscitate a coal industry that is non- competitive with other energy sources and whose only path to solvency is to shed jobs in favor of automation. It's also helpful to remember the coal industry's financial backing of Rump, and in particular the largesse of one Robert Murray of Murray Energy Corporation. Remember him?  Well, even this despicable slug admits Rump isn't bringing back coal jobs. But if he can make it easier to pollute streams and increase your profit margin, he's their guy.

This is what happens when a bankrupt ideology, in combination with a bankrupt industry, finds a morally and intellectually bankrupt dolt to do its bidding. We'll be lucky if we can limit the damage in the next 2 to 4 years.