The coming darkness

Today as I write this, Monday, 29 November, begins COP29, the annual world climate summit, to be held this year in Azerbaijan. The shadow of a second Trump term looms ominously over the attendees representing nearly 200 of the world’s governments. You can set your watches to the inevitable fact that the United States will not be in attendance for next year’s COP30. It will be America’s last such summit for at least five years.

Unfortunately, the world doesn’t have five years. What time to spare we have we have finally squandered. There is no room for any further missteps. But because, in his arrogance, Trump doesn’t believe in climate change, as master of the world’s second largest producer of greenhouse gases he will doom the world to unimaginably awful consequences.

While blue states like California scramble to “Trump-proof” their commitments to sane agendas such as the fight against climate change, Trump will inevitably punish them for that commitment. Thanks to global warming, California is in constant peril from wildfires. Trump can and will use his famous vindictiveness to do what Republicans recently falsely accused the Biden administration of doing. He will withhold desperately needed FEMA disaster assistance from states like California. How do I know he will do this? Because he already has.

In 2018, during the last time Trump infested the Oval Office, he initially refused to release federal disaster aid for wildfires in California. He completely withheld wildfire assistance from Washington state in 2020. He severely restricted emergency relief to Puerto Rico in the wake of the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017. Trump did all this because he felt these places were not sufficiently supportive of him. In other words, if you aren’t 100% supportive of Trump 100% of the time, he will kill you.

This will not be a theoretical threat for California. Already this year California has endured more than 7,500 wildfires which have burned more than a million acres. If anything, next year will be worse. Trump will not be riding to their rescue. He will harm and kill many of the people of California merely because it’s a “blue state.” California Republicans who voted for him will be harmed and die right along with Democrats. Trump is president for Republicans only where they live together in a majority.

MAGA Republicans will see nothing at all ironic or hypocritical in this. They will cheer Trump’s decision to punish blue states. Their primitive brains can see neither the injustice nor the irony. They will never make the connection between Trump withholding FEMA aid and the false accusations that Biden withheld FEMA aid during the two recent hurricanes. Indeed, they will see it as payback, never mind that they will be taking “revenge” for an outrage that never occurred.

Of course, we must all continue to do what we can in our individual lives to fight global warming. We must continue responsible practices, such as recycling, conservation of resources and keeping our individual carbon footprints low. Make it a point to talk about climate change and encourage others to do the same. Vote for representatives who acknowledge the established fact that the world is getting warmer and we are the cause.

Beyond that, I have no other recommendations. Trump is going to set us back as far as he can. The only consolation I can think of, and it’s a poor one, is he’s stupid and incompetent. So it could be worse were it otherwise.

Unfortunately, the election of 2024 wasn’t just a disaster for America. It was a disaster for the whole world. Here in Europe, for example, Trump’s bizarre commitment to and admiration of Vladimir Putin will have horrific consequences. The threat that Trump might withdraw America from NATO means we could be at risk from Russian encroachment. So we have climate change and old-fashioned war on our doorstep. So those of you who have suggested in recent comments that I live in enviable circumstances and I’ve somehow “got it made,” think again.

We have to remember that we are all in this together. My commitment to this fight is absolute. I have action plans that may or may not prove effective, but I will implement them all the same. Call me foolish if you want to, but I believe in the future. Bleak though it may seem, all darkness has one redeeming quality. Only in darkness can you truly see the stars.