Donald Trump is poisoning the well
Concerned ministers and representatives from sixty nations came together in London on Thursday to discuss climate change. Serious people were there to address a serious matter. The United Kingdom was represented by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband. France was represented by its Minister for Industry and Energy Marc Ferracci, who ominously observed that, “As long as we remain massively dependent on fossil fuels, there will be no energy security for Europe.”
All agreed that global climate change is a worldwide emergency that will be ignored at the world’s peril. All but one. There was a troll in the audience, a disruptive little child with a little child’s name, who was petulantly whining about money. Permit me to introduce you to Tommy Joyce, the latest man-baby from the Trump “administration.”
Tommy Joyce begged to differ with everyone else in the room, of course. He thought all this climate change nonsense was costing too much — you guessed it — MONEY. Tommy Joyce, goose-stepping with his toad-god Trump, also seized the occasion to disparage and lie about President Joe Biden: “Unfortunately, the focus during the last [U.S.] administration was on climate politics and policies leading to [fossil fuel] scarcity. These policies have been embraced by many, not just the United States, and harm human lives.”
Joyce got the reception from other officials of the sixty nations that he deserved. He was responded to with cold derision. In London on Thursday nobody had to make nice. Nobody was there to impress a powerful “ally.” They were there to save the world, while little Tommy wanted to burn it down. One UK energy industry figure said of Joyce’s speech: “That went down like a fart in a phone box.”
Tommy is acting assistant secretary of international affairs at the US Department of Energy. He was sent by Trump to set the record crooked with lies and conspiracy theories.
We no longer have time for that bullshit. We have a planet to save. We have grievously injured our lovely home, home to trillions of other creatures, and it’s our duty to repair the damage we have done.
Global warming is settled science. It’s no longer open to debate. Little Tommy got the cold shoulder he needed, but it wasn’t enough. He should have been thrown out of the conference on his ass. We need to fight human ignorance, not add to it. Trump should keep his minions at home. He and his lickspittles, sycophants and glassy-eyed fanatics aren’t wanted here, as he’s about to find out when he comes to. Britain in the coming weeks.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.