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Stephen Gottlieb: Environmental Mass Murder

I’ve spoken recently about the seriousness of Trump’s disloyalty as reflected in the whistle-blower’s complaint, his drive to imitate Hitler in exercising power, and the way rising wrong-wing violence is aggravating the threat from Trump. All are reasons to impeach or defeat Trump as soon as possible, and they combine to aggravate the danger of a dictatorial takeover.

But the environmental damage that Trump is aggravating is also a form of mass murder. It will drive millions of people out of their homes if they’re lucky, and kill, starve or suffocate them if they are not. That is mass murder. And mass murder is certainly a good reason to impeach a president.

He is aggravating global warming by removing limits on the production of greenhouse gasses, particularly carbon dioxide and methane, reducing efforts to substitute solar and wind power for methods that produce greenhouse gasses. He removed protections on public lands that absorb some of what we pour into the air. And by removing limits on what we pour into the oceans he has reduced the oceans’ ability to feed us.

Global warming brings many threats. It aggravates forest fires. And many things compound the problems of global warming, like the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest. But what can we do?

Actually lots of things, provided we have people in Washington who take it seriously. People on other continents have been converted from poachers to defenders of our natural patrimony with well-targeted incentives. That can be done in Brazil. A committed Administration could find ways to encourage Brazilians to take care of their rain forest.

But it won’t be done by an Administration that belittles the damage and cares less.

The same is true of the oceans. Global climate change is acidifying the oceans. As they become more acidic, the oceans will not sustain much of the marine life we depend on. Can we stop the process? Again, the answer is yes if we have an Administration in Washington that takes the problem seriously and puts its minds together to deal with it.

Burning fossil fuels creates some of the acids that are causing the acidification of the oceans. So there are double benefits to dealing with the burning of fossil fuels that create greenhouse gasses. Not only can we keep the earth at a livable temperature, but we can keep the oceans fertile.

Frankly, I think this is a loyalty issue. All of those people who are supporting the fossil fuel industry and its unleashing of greenhouse gasses are doing great damage to our country. That definitely includes the president, much of his Administration, Mitch McConnell and all members of both houses of Congress who refuse to support effective action against climate change. They are threatening the survival of Americans and the country itself. As far as I’m concerned that’s a good definition of treason.

We’ve got to clean up the environment with the method that Mary Martin made famous in South Pacific – we’ve got to wash those men right out of our hair – and every place else!

Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.

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